


Against All Odds

by amgattz



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-05-01 00:19:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 38
Words: 52,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5185100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amgattz/pseuds/amgattz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summer Dixon was six months pregnant and had just enjoyed her one year wedding anniversary when the world went to shit. The only good thing about it was that her husband had always been a hunter and there were a good amount of weapons in the house. It wasn't easy being pregnant in the real world so you can only imagine what it was like waking up on a seemingly normal morning only to look out the window and see people eating each other.</p>
<p>It's been almost two months since the day the world ended, and since her husband never came home that day Summer was roaming around Georgia looking for him. Eight months pregnant and strapped with as many weapons as possible she was on a mission. She knew her husband was alive and even as the walkers threatened her life every day, she only had one thing on her mind.</p>
<p>Daryl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summer’s POV**

At this point I wasn’t even sure how long I had been roaming around Georgia but I knew if I didn’t find a group that hopefully had a doctor or even a decent shelter soon I would be having this baby in the middle of the highway and I would become lunch for those damn walkers. No way in hell was I going to let that happen.

 

I wasn’t even sure where I was going anymore. I was terrible with directions, that was always my husband’s area of expertise. I just wanted to get to Atlanta, apparently it was safe, although I wasn’t sure how much of that I believed. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore. I saw a farm with a horse stable. I made my way over there and sat down on a barrel of hay. My back was on fire. I knew I couldn’t make it much farther if I didn’t move at a slower pace, but that was impossible with those damn walkers everywhere.

 

I was pulled out of my thoughts by shuffling behind me. I spun around pulling my gun out of its holster in the process, but I wasn’t met with a walker. Standing in front of be was a man in a Sheriff’s uniform with brown curls poking out from under his hat and a slight five o’clock shadow. His face and eyes seemed gentle and kind.

 

“Woah, woah, woah,” he spoke with a thick southern drawl, “I mean ya know harm, miss.”

 

I lowered my weapon and returned it to it’s holster.

 

“Sorry,” I apologized, “I thought you were one of them.”

 

“Sorry to disappoint,” he chuckled, “I’m Rick Grimes by the way.”

 

He stuck out his hand. I slowly got up off the hay resting one hand on my back for support.

 

“Summer Dixon,” I said and shook his hand.

 

“How long you been travelin for?” he asked.

 

“Since this shit started about two months ago,” I replied, “what about you?”

 

“Only a few days,” he stated, “I was in a coma from a gunshot wound for a few months before all of this. I woke up around four days ago and quickly realized the world went to shit. I’m looking for my wife and my son. She took all of the photo albums from the house. I know they’re alive.”

 

Photo albums, it was such a woman thing to do. I smiled slightly, knowing I had my photo albums in my bag as well.

 

“I’m looking for my husband,” I replied, “he went to the store to pick up a crib the day everything happened. I boarded myself up in our house for two days before I got over run by walkers. I’m on the lookout for him because he never came home. I know he’s alive though. He was a skilled hunter.”

 

Rick nodded sympathetically. We were both on the look out for our families.

 

“Where ya headed?” he asked.

 

“Atlanta,” I replied.

 

“I’m headed that way too,” he said, “come with me. I wouldn’t feel right leaving a pregnant woman out here to fend for herself. Besides, I managed to saddle a horse and you look like a few days off your feet would do you some good.”

 

“Thank you,” I said and smiled at him.

 

He lead me over to the horse he saddled and helped me climb up. He climbed up after me and instructed me to hold on as he coaxed the horse into a trot.


	2. Chapter 2

**Daryl’s POV**

I left the camp early in the day to go hunting. It was the only way to clear my head. My brother, Merle, had gone with a few others for a run into the city and I didn’t want to think about possibly losing him too. He was a tough son of a bitch but I still worried. I was absent mindedly twirling the wedding band on my left ring finger and had to take a deep breath to stop me from breaking down. I didn’t want to think about her. I couldn’t let myself think about her. I had convinced myself that she was dead. I had to convince myself that.

 

She was a good shot with a gun and a crossbow, I know, I taught her how to hunt. But the reality of it was that she was six months pregnant when this all started. Not much of a chance as a pregnant woman when the world is like this. I was mentally cursing myself for leaving her that day. It was all that consumed my thoughts every time I thought about her, which is why I had to force myself not to think about her. It hurt too much.

 

Maybe that was why I was so cold hearted and rude to the rest of the people at camp, with the exception of a woman named Lori. She knew about Summer and everything that happened and she was sympathetic because she had lost her husband. But I still couldn’t let myself open up to anyone. I was filled with too much anger, resentment, and guilt. But I think everyone was feeling like that at this point. This is why I couldn’t lose Merle too.

 

Throughout my trek I had shot down at least a dozen squirrels and I had finally spotted a large buck and began to track him. So many years of hunting made it easy for me to lure the animal in the direction of camp.

 

I had walked at least a day into the woods and I knew I wouldn’t be getting back to camp until mid morning but that was fine with me. I liked being alone in the woods and besides, I couldn’t sleep. Every time I did I dreamed about her. So I figured the best thing to do was track the deer through the woods.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summer’s POV**

Rick and I approached Atlanta and it looked just as I feared it would. There was no help here. The city was run down and taken over just like the rest of the state.

 

We slowly trotted through the city and stopped when we heard the sound of a helicopter. We looked up and saw it’s reflection on the side of a building, both of us looking up to see where it was coming from.

 

“Hold on tight, Summer,” Rick said, “I’m gonna get her to gallop in the direction of the sound.”

 

I nodded and gripped his waist, under his bag of guns, tighter. We galloped toward the helicopter and were suddenly stopped by a huge herd of walkers. We turned around and went around a tank in the middle of the street only to be blocked by another herd. We were surrounded and the walkers were closing in. They began to grab at the horse and Rick turned to me. I pulled out my gun and nodded. We began firing shots but it only drove them closer. They were starting to pull the horse down. Everything was happening so fast. We were going down.

 

“Summer!” Rick yelled over the commotion, “Get down now! You’ll be crushed! Get to the top of that tank!”

 

I nodded at him and quickly surveyed the surroundings. I was close enough to the thank to make the jump. I hurled myself at the tank just barely landing on the ladder as the horse, and Rick, went down.

 

“Rick!” I screamed.

 

“I’m fine! Climb!” he yelled.

 

I started climbing, kicking walkers in the head before they could grab me. I made it to the top and thankfully there were only a few walkers. I switched from my gun to my knife, knowing the gun was a lost cause. I killed as many as I could before getting the top hatch open and climbing in. Pulling it closed behind me. I could hear the footsteps above knowing the walkers at the base made their way to the top.

 

I could hear gunfire below me and noticed the bottom hatch on the tank was open. Rick was right below me, firing rounds. They were closing in on him.

 

“Rick!” I shouted.

 

He looked up and I stretched my arm out to him. He grabbed hold and I pulled him up and he shut the hatch behind him. We both sat down breathing heavily and I could feel the baby moving around wildly.

 

Rick checked his gun and noticed he was out of ammo. He surveyed the tank and noticed a dead soldier in the corner. He went over and pulled the gun from the soldier’s holster. He checked the clip and the soldier started to groan.

 

“Summer, cover your ears,” he said simply.

 

I obliged and he pointed the gun to the walkers head and pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening. Even with them covered it felt like my ears were gonna start bleeding. Finally the ringing in my ears subsided and we were able to try and get our bearings. Then we heard the CB radio making noise.

 

“Hey, dumbasses,” a voice came through, “Yeah, you two in the tank. Can you hear me? Are you alive in there?”

 

I scrambled over to the radio.

 

“Yes, yes we are,” I replied.

 

“Good,” the voice replied, “you guys are so dumb and you don’t have much time. Do you have any weapons?”

 

At this point Rick pulled a grenade off the walker.

 

“Yes,” I replied, “two guns with about twenty rounds between both, a grenade and a knife.”

 

“You should be fine,” he said, “there are only two walkers on top of the tank. The rest have gathered around the horse. Get off the right side of the tank and you’ll see a blocked off alleyway with a fence. Be there.”

 

“We dropped a bag of guns,” I said back.

 

“Aren’t you listening?!” he shouted, “Forget the guns! Get out now! The alley with the fence!”

 

I looked at Rick and he nodded. We pushed the top hatch of the tank open and made our way back out into Atlanta.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summer’s POV**

Rick and I managed to make our way to the alley killing walkers as we went. When we reached it we heard the voice from the CB radio yelling for us. When we found him we came face to face with a short Korean guy.

 

“This way!” he said looking back and forth between us.

 

I saw him glance at my stomach and heard him mumble _shit_. We followed him up two ladders and across a gap between two roofs and down a flight of stairs. As we went down the stairs he pulled out a walkie.

 

“Coming back,” he said, “got some company. Plus four geeks in the alley.”

 

He halted at the bottom of the stairs and a door flew open where two guys dressed in what I could only call zombie apocalypse body armor came rushing out and beat the walkers.

 

“This way!” the CB radio guy said.

 

We jumped over the dead walkers and into the door. The second we walked through we were both grabbed by the collar and slammed into a wall, guns pointed at us.

 

“We’re all dead because of you assholes!” the blonde girl holding Rick said.

 

“Guys let them go! She’s pregnant!” CB radio guy said.

 

I was released and so was Rick. I took a moment to catch my breath before muttering a thank you. There was murmuring amongst the group before introductions were made. I learned that CB radio guys name was Glenn and the blonde girl was Andrea. The black woman was Jacqui and the black man was referred to as T-Dog.

 

“My name is Rick and this here is Summer,” Rick said.

 

People were about to start asking questions but shots rang out from above.

 

“That stupid redneck!” Andrea said.

 

“Summer stay here,” Rick said, “you need rest.”

 

“I’ll stay with her,” Jacqui said.

 

Rick and the rest of the people ran up to the roof. I glanced at the front doors of the department store and noticed the mass amount of walkers pressed against it.

 

“Did we cause that?” I asked.

 

Jacqui nodded.

 

“I’m sorry,” I replied.

 

“It’s not your fault, you didn’t know we were here,” she said, “don’t beat yourself up.”

 

A few minutes later everyone was back downstairs talking about how they hand cuffed the man who was firing the gun to the roof. Just then the walkers broke through the first set of glass doors. Panic set in. Rick and Glenn devised and escape plan and covered in walker guts they entered the city.

 

Jacqui and I stayed downstairs while everyone else went up to the roof, presumably to release the man who was handcuffed, since Rick had given T-Dog the key. Not much later we heard the sound of a car alarm and footsteps coming down the stairs.

 

“Let’s go! To the loading door!” Andrea yelled and we followed her.

 

We heard a crash and the sounds of the walkers finally breaking through the second set of doors. Rick banged on the loading door and Andrea opened it. We climbed into the back of a moving van and T-Dog jumped in last closing the door as the van started moving and the walkers closed in.

 

As we drove everyone looked at each other. I didn’t notice anyone new so I’m assuming they didn’t get the man cuffed to the roof.

 

“I dropped the fucking key,” T-Dog finally said.

 

“He’s still up there!” Rick said.

 

“I chained the door and padlocked it,” T-Dog said, “they won’t be able to get through that. He’s alive.”

 

“Well, it’s not like anyone will miss him,” Andrea said.

 

“His brother will,” T-Dog said, “I’ll tell him what happened since I dropped the key.”

 

“No, I’ll do it, I was the one who cuffed him,” Rick said.

 

“No offense T, but I wouldn’t tell Daryl, let Rick or someone do it,” Andrea said.

 

My heart skipped a beat. Did she just say what I think she did?

 

“Did you say Daryl?” I asked and she nodded, “What’s his last name?”

 

“Dixon,” she replied and I started to cry.

 

“My husband,” I choked, “my husband is alive. And you handcuffed my brother-in-law to the roof!”

 

“Wait! You’re Daryl’s wife!” Andrea exclaimed, “He thought you were dead! You’re not mad about us leaving Merle are you?”

 

“No,” I said with a laugh, “he’s an ass. But I’ll tell you Daryl will not be happy about it.”

 

“Well maybe being reunited with you will diffuse the situation,” T-Dog said.

 

“I doubt it,” I said and shook my head.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summer’s POV**

We pulled up to the camp and everyone began climbing out of the truck. Andrea helped me down and my biker boots hit the ground with a loud thud. I made my way over to Rick and stayed close to him. I was nervous. We slowly made our way over to the people.

 

“Dad!” I heard and saw a young boy with brown hair run toward Rick. Rick took off at a run and collided with the little boy and began to cry. A woman with brown hair came running over as well and engulfed both of them in a hug. The sight brought tears to my eyes. Rick had found his family.

 

I shuffled nervously from foot to foot scanning the area for Daryl. I didn’t see him anywhere. I began to panic. What if something happened to him while everyone was in the city?

 

“Summer!” Rick called to me and I made my way over to him and his family.

 

“Summer, this is my wife Lori and my son Carl,” he said, “guys this is Summer Dixon.”

 

“Summer!” Lori said and hugged me like she’d known me for years, “Daryl told me all about you. He thought you were dead! He’s going to be so thrilled to see you!”

 

“Where is he?” I asked, the panic present in my eyes.

 

“Out on a hunt,” she replied and I could feel my panic diffuse.

 

“Thank god,” I said, “It’s so nice to meet you, by the way.”

 

“Likewise,” she said and then turned to an older woman, “Carol, can you grab me one of the chairs? This poor girl needs to sit, she’s shaking.”

 

The woman grabbed a chair for me and I sat down, grateful to be off my feet.

 

“Thank you, Carol,” I said, “I’m Summer by the way.”

 

She glanced at Lori and Lori nodded. Carol bent down and hugged me.

 

“It’s great to meet you, Summer. Your husband is a good man. A bit anti-social, but good none-the-less. Although, how you put up with that insufferable brother-in-law of yours I’ll never know,” Carol said.

 

“I honestly don’t know how I put up with him either,” I said with a slight laugh.

 

I was soon introduced to everyone in the camp and apparently everyone knew who I was. As the day turned into night we all sat around the fire eating dinner. I kept glancing at the woods waiting to see Daryl walk out of them. As we were sitting around the fire Rick was telling everyone his journey which I had heard on the way to Atlanta.

 

“So Summer, what’s your story?” a man, who’s name I learned was Shane, asked.

 

“My story?” I asked.

 

“Yeah,” he replied, “what happened to you before all this happened?”

 

“Well, lets see,” I said, “I met Daryl when I was twenty-one at a local bar. We started dating not too long after that. He proposed a couple years later and we got married a little over a year ago. I found out I was pregnant and two months a go he left early in the day to go pick up the crib we ordered and when I woke up the world had gone to shit. I locked all the doors and windows and pack two survival bags, one for myself and one for him. I left his bag and crossbow on the bed and grabbed a few guns, some ammo, and a hunting knife for myself and held out for as long as I could waiting for him to come home. Two days passed and I got over run. I knew I needed to go or I wouldn’t have lived so I fought my way out and got to my car. I drove for miles trying to find him but there were walkers everywhere. Eventually I ran out of gas and continued to wander through the woods, figuring that’s where he would be hiding since he could hunt. I couldn’t find him. Eventually I found a farm and sat down to rest and that’s when Rick found me.”

 

“Well, you two were lucky,” Amy said, “finding each other and then finding our camp where both your families are.”

 

“Definitely lucky,” I said and smiled at Rick who nodded slightly in return.

 

Everyone continued talking and I didn’t take my eyes off the woods. I could feel the tension building again. Why wasn’t he back yet? What if something happened? What if he was bit and out there on his own?

 

“He’ll be fine,” I heard Dale say next to me, “Every time he’s gone hunting he’s been out all night. I suspect it’s because when he’s here he doesn’t sleep.”

 

I nodded knowing Daryl did things like that. But it didn’t help me calm down much.

 

“Lori, why don’t you show Summer where Daryl’s tent is. She looks like she needs some sleep,” Dale said.

 

Lori got up and motioned for me to follow her and I did. She shoed me where the tent was and I thanked her and said goodnight before going inside and zipping it up. I could tell her shared the tent with Merle but I could easily figure out which side was his. I took my shoes off and pulled out my wedding photo album before curling up in his sleeping bag. I began flipping through it and started to cry. All the emotions I’d been feeling since this all started finally came out. I closed the album and curled up against the pillow. It smelled like him. I started crying harder and eventually found sleep hoping when I woke up he would be there next to me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Daryl’s POV**

Just as I predicted I shot down the deer close enough to camp. I decided to shoot down some more squirrels before going back figuring the deer would be safe since walkers didn’t come this far up the mountain. I collected the squirrels when I heard a scream and made my way back to camp slowly. I heard a commotion and when it died down I came out of the bushes. I saw most of the group holding weapons and a walker on the ground. There was a huge chunk taken out of the deer’s neck.

 

“That was my deer!” I shouted, “I was tracking that thing for miles! I was gonna drag it back to camp and cook us up some venison!”

 

I started kicking the walker and cursing at it, pissed off that the only decent food we would have had in weeks was gone.

 

“Think we could cut around the bit parts?” I asked.

 

“I wouldn’t risk it,” Shane replied.

 

“Oh well, I got at least a dozen squirrels. That will have to do,” I said.

 

The walkers severed head started to chomp and I shot it with an arrow through the brain.

 

“Gotta shoot it through the brain,” I said pulling the arrow out, “don’t you people know anything?”

 

I made my way back to camp calling for Merle telling him I got squirrels.

 

“Daryl slow down, I wanna talk to you for a minute,” some guy I didn’t recognize said.

 

“Who the hell are you?” I asked.

 

“My name is Rick,” he said and it clicked, Lori’s husband, “it’s about your brother. There was a problem in Atlanta.”

 

I froze.

 

“He dead?” I asked.

 

“We’re not sure,” Rick said.

 

“Well he’s either dead or he ain’t, which one is it!?” I questioned.

 

“Your brother was a danger to the group and I cuffed him to the roof of the department store building,” Rick said, “We went back for him but T-Dog dropped the key and chained the door that had the roof access. He may still be alive.”

 

“You left my brother chained to a roof!?” I shouted and threw the squirrels off my shoulder and charged at Rick knocking him to the ground. I was about to punch him when Shane pulled me off and put me in a head lock.

 

“We do have some good news that my calm you down,” T-Dog said and I glared at him.

 

“What, that this is all a joke?” I said.

 

“No,” T-Dog said, “your wife is here.”

 

“Don’t lie to me, asshole!” I spat, “She’d be eight months pregnant by now. How the hell would she get here!?”

 

Just then Shane let go of me and I stood up. I saw a petite blonde figure approaching. Summer.

 

“Daryl!” she called and I ran over to her.

 

I grabbed her face making sure she was real.

 

“Daryl, baby, it’s me,” she said tears streaming down her face, “I’m here. I’m real. I promise.”

 

She had her hands on my face wiping tears from my cheeks. I didn’t even realize I had started to cry. I leaned down and kissed her. I couldn’t believe she was really here. I was overjoyed.

 

“I-I thought you were dead,” I whispered.

 

“I know,” she said, “but I’m not. I’m right here.”

 

“Are you ok? Is the baby ok?” I asked putting a hand on her stomach.

 

As if feeling my distress the baby moved at my touch.

 

“We’re ok, we’re all ok,” she said, “but Merle may not be.”

 

Her statement brought me back to reality. I put my arm around her shoulder and walked back over to the group.

 

“We have to go get him,” I said, “right now. I am not leaving my brother stranded on a roof!”

 

“Daryl, please, let the others get him,” Summer said, “I just found you. I can’t lose you now. I’ve been in the city. I know what it’s like. It’s not safe.”

 

“I’ll be fine, don’t you worry. I made it this far didn’t I?” I said kissing the top of her head.

 

“Rick will show you where he is,” Lori said.

 

“I’ll go with you,” Rick said, “I left a bag of guns in the city that I would like to retrieve.”

 

“Then lets go!” I said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summer’s POV**

Rick and Shane began to argue about going into the city because Rick wanted to take Glenn along and T-Dog offered to go because he was the one who dropped the key. Eventually it was agreed that Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog would make the trek back into the city to retrieve Rick’s guns and Merle. They decided to leave in an hour and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to talk to Daryl.

 

We went back to the tent and I sat down on his sleeping bag. He came and sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I rested my head against his shoulder and sat there for a minute just relishing in the fact that I was finally with him again. It had been far too long and I hated every second of being away from him. I hated every second not knowing if he was alive or dead.

 

“I thought I lost you,” he finally said, “I went back to the house a few days after it happened with Merle. I saw the bag and the crossbow on the bed but I didn’t see you anywhere. And there were four walkers in the house. I assumed the worst.”

 

“I waited for you for two days, I wasn’t sure what happened to you,” I replied, “I wanted to keep waiting. I knew you would come back but I got over run. There were too many of them. I was terrified.”

 

He didn’t respond. Instead he tilted my head up and kissed me.

 

“You can’t go into the city, D,” I said firmly, “you just can’t. I know it’s Merle and he’s your brother but you can’t go out into that.”

 

“I know you don’t want me to, but I have to,” he said, “you’re right. He is my brother and that’s why I have to go. I don’t want to leave you, I really don’t but I have to get him. And I’ll make it back in one piece without a bite or scratch on me, I promise.”

 

“That’s a pretty heavy thing to promise,” I replied, “I know you’ll be fine but I’m scared. I can’t lose you. Not again. I thought I would never find you. I thought I was going to be wandering around all of Georgia for the rest of my life. I can’t let you go so quickly.”

 

I started crying again and he pulled me in to his chest. I sat there for a few minutes and just let myself cry it out. I was angry. Angry at him for wanting to go. Angry at myself for not going up to the roof with Rick and seeing Merle. Angry that the world had gone to shit.

 

“I know,” he said and hugged me tighter, “I will come back, but I have to get Merle. And you’ve been wandering around for so long. You’re pregnant. You need to stay here and rest and help the other women out with things. Try to get back to a normal life. If I don’t find Merle up there I promise you I will come right back here. If he somehow found a way off that roof he’ll find a way to take care of himself. But I owe it to him to at least try to get him out of there.”

 

He was right. I nodded and he kissed me one last time before he heard Rick calling for them to leave. I walked him back over to the moving van and squeezed his hand before he climbed in the back. The rest of the group got in the van and as the drove off I went over to Lori to see if there was anything I could do to help out around the camp.

 

“I was going to go out into the woods to collect berries,” Lori said, “but why don’t you go down to the lake and help Andrea, Amy, and Carol with the laundry? They can always use an extra hand.”

 

I agreed to help with the laundry and made my way down to the lake. Everyone was seated on rocks at the edge of the lake and I went over and joined them. They were washing clothes in buckets.

 

“I really do miss my washing machine,” Carol said with a laugh.

 

“I’m pretty sure we all do,” Andrea said.

 

“So, Summer, do you know what you’re having?” Amy asked.

 

“A boy,” I said with a smile, “we’re going to name him Harry.”

 

“I like that name,” Carol said.

 

“I’m just nervous is all,” I finally said feeling like I could open up to these women, “is anyone in your group a doctor? I’m just a little concerned about what’s going to happen when the baby comes. His cries might definitely attract walkers.”

 

I knew I was voicing all of their concerns when I said that.

 

“Honestly, sweetie, if Glenn’s car alarm didn’t bring them up here I doubt a baby crying will,” Carol said, “none of us are doctors but I’m sure between all of us we can figure out how to deliver a baby. And we can always send Glenn or someone on a run for formula and things.”

 

“There shouldn’t be a need for that,” I said, “before I left I made sure to pack formula and some clothes for the baby figuring that I wasn’t going to make it back to the house. But eventually I will need to get more. And I would be more than willing to go on the run myself.”

 

“You can’t leave the baby here without you,” Andrea said, “if anything, I’ll go. You’re a smart girl though, I would have never thought to grab formula for the baby while the world was ending.”

 

“I’ve always been one to prioritize,” I said, “Daryl likes to joke that that’s why he married me. Because I’m always prepared.”

 

“I think I heard him mention that when we first met,” Amy said, “he was saying something about his bag being pack and his bow being left for him.”

 

I smiled.

 

“Well I live for the philosophy that my father always told me. Prior planning prevents possible problems,” I said with a laugh.

 

We finished up washing the laundry and brought it back up to camp and hung it on the clotheslines to dry. Thank God for the Georgia heat in the summer. The clothes would be dry in no time. I spent the rest of the day with Carol and Lori trying to help out as best I could around camp while trying not to worry about Daryl in Atlanta.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summer’s POV**

The day was pretty productive for me. It was the first time in a long time that I had something to do other than wander around and kill walkers. But I was worried that by the time dinner rolled around no one in the group was back. I could see the same look of distress on Lori’s face that I’m sure was plastered to mine. We tried not to think about it or anything. We tried to just go about having a normal dinner.

 

We were all laughing and telling stories from before all of this. Trying to make everyone feel better about the people who had yet to return. It was difficult but it was what we had to do to keep our composure. I’m sure everyone was telling these stories more to keep mine and Lori’s minds off of the fact that our husband’s hadn’t come back yet. We were all laughing when Amy got up.

 

“Where are you going?” Andrea asked.

 

“To pee,” Amy said, “can’t have any privacy around here can I?”

 

She went over to the RV and we continued our conversation.

 

“We’re seriously out of toilet paper?” I heard Amy say and then I heard her scream.

 

Everything happened so fast. We were over run by walkers within seconds. It became pandemonium. I pulled my knife from my boot and jammed it through a walkers head while I saw Andrea run over to Amy. Lori was trying to shelter Carl as best she could and Shane was blocking them firing off rounds.

 

“SUMMER!” I heard Daryl yell from behind me, “DUCK!”

 

I dropped to the ground and saw the arrow fly over my head and into a walker that was coming toward me. I ran over to it and pulled the arrow out of it’s head. I tossed Daryl the arrow and stood back to back with him.

 

“Just like the old days, huh?” he said firing another arrow.

 

“Yeah, except we’re not shooting ducks and I don’t have a bow,” I said stabbing a walker through the head as it advanced on us.

 

We continued like that for a few more minutes before all the walkers were dead. I felt Daryl pull me into a hug and I stood there for a minute to catch my breath. I looked up at him and he wiped my face with his bandana, I guess I had blood on me. Then he kissed me.

  
“What took you so long to get back?” I asked, “Where’s Merle?”

 

“Glenn got taken by a group of Spanish guys, we had to negotiate with them to get him back. Lost some of our guns in the process,” he said, “Merle wasn’t on the roof. He cut his hand off and burned the stump to stop from bleedin’ out. He got out of the building and made it to our van and took it before we could get back to it so we had to walk back here. But I came back in one piece like I promised. And what were you doing jumping right into the action!? You could have been bit!”

 

Now he was getting angry, not because he was mad at me but because I could tell he was scared.

 

“I wasn’t going to just stand by and let these things take out our people!” I shouted back at him.

 

“You got blood on my vest,” he said with a smirk and I knew that he wasn’t mad.

 

“I’ll wash it tomorrow,” I said with a laugh and kissed him again before walking over to the rest of the group to figure out what to do with all the bodies.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summer’s POV**

By the time the sun had risen we decided to bury our people and burn the walkers. It was no easy task, separating the dead from the dead. No one wanted the women to help, especially me, but after a heated spat with Daryl he agreed to let me help dig graves. Andrea was still bent over Amy’s body sobbing. I went over to talk to her.

 

“Andrea…” I started.

 

“Summer, don’t, just don’t,” she said.

“We’ve made a burial sight,” I replied weakly.

 

“Shut up, okay?!” She shouted at me, “Get off your high horse! You have your family! You found your husband and you’re going to have a baby! Just leave me be! You don’t know what this is like!”

 

I could see Daryl glaring in our direction starting to walk over. I shot him a look that told him to leave it be and he went back to helping the men sort the bodies. I went back to digging graves. After hours of digging and sorting we were ready to start burying the bodies. By the time we were done there was only one empty grave. I was going to walk over to Andrea again but the gun shot rang out and I knew Amy had turned. It made me sick.

 

I had seen people turn before and I had killed plenty of walkers but it never got to the point that I had to watch someone I knew get bit and turn. I couldn’t process it. I was in shock to the point that I didn’t even realize Daryl moving me away from Amy’s grave so Andrea could dump her body. It was an emotional morning to say the least. We were all running on over 24 hours of no sleep and everyone was on edge.

 

“We have to leave here,” Rick said finally.

 

“And lose this stability?” Dale said.

 

“If you haven’t noticed our stability was gone last night,” Daryl spat right back at him.

 

“Daryl’s right,” Shane said, “we can’t stay here. Not now that we’ve been over run. The walkers have run out of food in the city. It’s only a matter of time before more come through.”

 

Everyone eventually came to agreement that we could no longer stay at the camp.

 

“Where will we go?” I asked absent mindedly rubbing my stomach.

 

“The CDC,” Rick said noticing my concern.

 

The baby would be here in a month’s time. I needed to get somewhere safe to have this child. Although, I wasn’t sure there was anywhere safe left in this world.

 

Within the next hour all the cars were packed up and we were on the road headed to the CDC. Our things were in Dale’s RV and I climbed on the back of Merle’s motorcycle that Daryl decided to take over and we headed toward the highway.

 

“You alright back there?” Daryl called to me a few miles into the drive.

 

“Better than ever,” I yelled back.

 

He knew I was telling the truth. I always loved when we went on bike rides. I saw him nod and we pressed on toward the CDC. When we finally arrived it looked like it was abandoned just like the rest of the world but that didn’t stop Rick from pounding on the door claiming that he saw the camera move. I guess he was right because a few minutes later, when we were all about to climb back into our cars, the door opened and we were greeted by a man who seemed to work there. He informed us to get our things now because once these doors closed they wouldn’t open again. We quickly ran out to our cars and gathered our things and followed the man inside, the door sealing behind us. Daryl grabbed my hand, obviously sensing my apprehension to this situation. He squeezed it trying to reassure me that it was going to be ok, but he knew better. He knew my intuition was usually right and I had a bad feeling about this place.


	10. Chapter 10

**Daryl’s POV**

We learned that the man who let us in was named Jenner. His only condition to letting us stay was all of us submitting to blood tests. We obviously agreed. When he told us there was food and beds I swear we all could have cried. We all sat down to eat and have a few drinks and we were having the time of our lives. I hadn’t had a drink in so long I was walking around with a bottle of Southern Comfort. It made me laugh just holding it thinking about how Summer had given me a free drink on my 21st birthday at a local bar. The drink was Southern Comfort on the rocks. I eventually sat down next to Summer who still looked like she was a little on edge but trying to keep up appearances. I knew from experience that her intuition is usually pretty on point, but I was too happy to be somewhere safe for once to really think her intuition was on point this time.

 

“I’ll show you all where you can sleep,” Jenner said and we followed him.

 

“Are we underground?” Carol asked him.

 

“Are you claustrophobic?” Jenner asked.

 

“A little,” she replied.

 

“Try not to think about it,” Jenner said, “Your rooms are on either side of this hallway. Showers are down the hall. Try not to use all the hot water.”

 

I could feel the excitement radiating from the group. As soon as we put our things down in one of the rooms it was like a race to the showers. It was kind of funny watching Summer try to undress herself. She was anticipating the shower and could barely see her feet. She was having a tough time getting her pants off.

 

“A little help would be nice,” she said finally giving up and sitting on the floor.

“You could have just asked,” I said with a slight laugh.

 

“That’s right, laugh at your pregnant wife who can’t get her pants off to take a damn shower,” she said with a smirk.

 

I knelt down and helped her get her pants off one leg at a time.

 

“I can’t remember the last time I took those pants off,” she said with a laugh as I helped her to her feet.

 

“If this wasn’t the end of the world I would call you disgusting,” I said laughing right back, “and miss five P’s of life: prior planning prevents possible problems, you didn’t pack pajamas?”

 

“I wasn’t thinking clearly,” she said stepping under the hot water, “I was packing for you and the baby.”

 

“I know,” I said joining her under the water, “you packed me pajamas.”

 

“Then you can be a gentleman and let me wear them,” She said and leaned up to kiss me.

 

“Good thing you packed me more than one pair,” I said back.

 

We must have just stood under the hot water for at least a half hour before finally deciding to get dressed and go to bed. I had to say she had more success getting into her clothes then getting out of them. She climbed into bed and I climbed in next to her. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had laid next to her. I wrapped my arms around her pulling her close to me.

 

“I missed this,” she said snuggling closer to me.

 

“Me too,” I said kissing the top of her head, “just get some sleep. We need it.”

  
I felt her nod and I knew a few seconds later she was out like a light. I laid there for a while longer thinking about everything that had happened before drifting off to sleep myself.


	11. Chapter 11

**Daryl’s POV**

The next morning we all went back to the cafeteria area to have breakfast. The majority of us were hungover. Andrea then asked Jenner if the CDC had found any cures. He took us to the main control room where we first entered the underground area of the building and showed us a video document of a test subject that had been bitten and agreed to be tested. It basically showed that when we come back it’s just our basic instincts. None of ourselves survive it. Summer and I went back to our room after the demonstration and as we were sitting there discussing what to do when the baby comes when the lights went out. I stuck my head out the door at Jenner and Rick walking by and asked what happened with the lights. Everyone exited their rooms and followed them back to the control room. Once we all entered the room the doors shut and sealed behind us. Jenner explained that once the countdown clock hits 30 minutes the power source shuts everything down to reserve the last of the power to keep the computers running until the last possible second.

 

“What happens when the clock runs out?” Lori asked.

 

“Facility wide decontamination,” Jenner replied calmly.

 

“What does that mean?” Glenn asked.

 

“It basically lights the air on fire. One millisecond. No pain. Just death,” he replied and sat down.

 

That’s when everyone started freaking out. The women started crying everyone started yelling at Jenner. Shane and I grabbed axes and began to swing at the doors.

 

“Those doors are built to withstand a rocket blast,” Jenner said.

  
“THIS IS NO WAY FOR MY PREGNANT WIFE TO DIE!” I shouted storming at Jenner with the ax raised.

 

Rick pushed me back away from Jenner and I noticed the look on his face. If I killed Jenner there was no way to get out of here.

 

“My daughter doesn’t deserve to die like this,” Carol said crying ushering Sofia toward the door.

 

After a few minutes of heated arguing, Jenner finally opened the doors with one final warning that the top floors doors wouldn’t open. He couldn’t control those.

 

“Everyone, lets go!” I shouted and grabbed Summer by the hand.

 

Jacqui said she wanted to stay and so did Andrea. Dale was distraught by this and told the rest of us to go while he talked to Andrea. We all ran to our rooms and grabbed our things and made our way to the top floor by the entrance as quickly as possible. Shane and I headed to the window and started slamming it with our axes but it wasn’t doing anything. T-Dog ran up with a chair to make a dent. Shane shot at the window but nothing was working. It was quickly becoming apparent that we weren’t getting out of here. Finally Carol called to Rick.

 

“I think I have something that could help,” Carol said rummaging through her bag, “When I washed your clothes that first morning at camp I found this.”

 

She handed him a grenade and he ran over to the window.

 

“Everyone get down!” He yelled before pulling the pin.

 

I covered Summer looking her in the eye, making sure that if we were killed by the grenade blast that the last thing I saw was her face.

 

“Oh shit!” Rick yelled running back to us and then the explosion happened.

 

Once the blast subsided we all began climbing out the building killing walkers as we ran to the cars. Summer and I ran to the motorcycle and climbed on. We were all about to drive off when we saw Andrea and Dale climbing out of the building. We knew we had to wait for them and that the building was going to blow any second. They made it behind the sand bags around the perimeter of the building and I knew the motorcycle wouldn’t provide enough coverage for me and Summer so I pulled her behind the RV. We heard the building blow and after waiting behind the RV for a few minutes trying to calm down and catch our breath we made our way back over to the motorcycle and got ready for the caravan to start moving. I was just hoping that we would find somewhere safe soon. I wasn’t going to let Summer have this baby in the middle of the highway.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summer’s POV**

We were making some good time driving down the highway trying to find somewhere to go. We finally hit a roadblock with cars abandoned and parked all over the highway. There didn’t seem to be any way through. Dale asked Daryl if we could ride ahead and see if there was a way through because the bike was the only vehicle small enough to weave around the mess. We found a way through and doubled back to tell Dale to follow us. Once the caravan was moving again everything seemed like it was going to be ok, until Dale beeped his horn causing us all to stop. Daryl parked the bike and helped me off and we walked over to the others to see what the problem was.

 

“Radiator hose busted,” Dale said, “I told you this would happen.”

 

We agreed to scavenge the cars for supplies and anything else we needed while Dale tore them apart for parts to see if he could find a radiator hose that fit. Daryl and I’s first instinct was to try and find things for the baby. Dale had already told us we could store anything we found in his RV. Luckily for us we came across a car seat, some blankets and clothes and most importantly formula. I was still nervous about having the baby out in the road but if that was what I had to do then that was what I would do. I couldn’t be picky about things, not when the world is like this. Daryl noticed that I had gone silent.

 

“Hey, you alright?” he asked me.

 

“Fine,” I replied picking through another bag.

 

“Summer, don’t lie to me,” he said, “why are you shutting me out?”

 

“I’m not shutting you out,” I said with a sigh, “I’m just being stupid is all.”

 

“How ya figure?” he replied.

 

“Because I’m panicking about the baby,” I finally said, “what if I have to have him in the middle of the street? What if his cries attract walkers and then the entire group gets killed? What if something happens to him or one of us? What then? I can’t ask these people to care for our son!”

 

I was crying and shaking. I hadn’t even realized how much everything was bothering me until I finally let it all out. The funny thing about it was that Daryl was the only person who could get this kind of reaction from me. I mean a real reaction, what I’m really feeling. If I was voicing my concerns to anyone else I would have remained calm and brushed it off. But with Daryl, every single emotion I feel takes over.

 

“Sum, you know that’s not gonna happen,” he said pulling me close to him, “Dale said he can sound proof the RV and we can stay in there. You’re not gonna have him in the middle of the street. And most importantly nothing is gonna happen to us. None of us. I promise you that. You know damn well I would never let anything happen to you. And if God forbid something did happen? You really think Rick would leave our baby with no one to care for it? He wouldn’t. So quit your worrying. Everything will be fine.”

 

I leaned up and kissed him and he wiped the tears from my face before we gathered our findings and brought them over to Dale’s RV. I thanked Dale a hundred times over for storing everything for us and he made a joke about a motorcycle not being suitable for a car seat and I knew it was his way of saying not to worry about it. It still amazed me that even though the world had gone to shit there were actually decent people out there. Daryl and I started walking back to the cars to try and find general supplies when Rick grabbed us both by the shoulder and told us to get under the cars.

 

I began to panic. Daryl and I turned around and I saw the huge walker herd in the distance. We did as we were told. I climbed under one car and Daryl crawled under the one next to mine. He put his finger to his lips letting me know to stay quiet as the herd passed through. For a minute or two it seemed like we were gonna be fine, until I felt a tugging at my leg. I turned and saw one grabbing at me and began kicking frantically. Daryl saw the commotion and got out from under his car, killing a few walkers in the process, and came over and stabbed the one grabbing me through the head. Just then I saw T-Dog fighting one off, blood pouring down his arm. I pointed it out to Daryl. He rushed over and killed the one T-Dog was struggling with and before covering T-Dog with the dead walker to hide the smell of his blood, he checked T-Dog for bites. I could see he wanted to make it back over to me but couldn’t and instead grabbed another dead walker and covered himself to not be noticed. It felt like an eternity before the herd finished passing through. And that’s when we heard the scream. We all scrambled over to see the commotion and saw Carol’s daughter, Sophia, run over the guardrail on the side of the road, two walkers hot on her tail. I ran over to Carol reaching her the same time Lori did. Rick ran into the woods after her and we all stood there in shock.

 

“Oh God Lori, Summer, there are two walkers going after my baby!” Carol shrieked trying to run after her.

 

“Rick will save her!” Lori said holding Carol back.

 

Now all that was left to do was wait for Rick to come back with Sophia in tow. I couldn’t help but feel nervous that he wouldn’t return for with her but I had to keep optimistic for Carol’s sake. I knew if it was my child out there I would be inconsolable. But we knew Rick was a man of his word and if he went out there to find her, he wouldn’t stop until she was back safe with the group.


	13. Chapter 13

**Daryl’s POV**

After at least an hour or so later Rick came running back up to the highway without Sophia. I could see the look of panic run across Carol, Lori, and Summer’s faces. Where was the little girl? I was assuming the worst. She’d been bit and Rick, with is better judgment, decided not to bring her back. But thankfully, I was wrong. He explained that he left her in a creek in a small alcove while he drew the two walkers away from her and killed them and when he came back to get her she was gone. He asks me, Shane and Glenn to come with him back into the woods to try and find her figuring if she ran off she wouldn’t be too far away from where he left her. We grabbed our gear and went off into the woods with Rick. We ran in the same direction Rick ran with Sophia and reached the creek where he left her figuring it would be a good place to start our search for her.

 

“I told her to go back that way,” Rick said pointing toward the direction of the highway, “and keep the sun over her left shoulder.”

 

Shane argues with Rick saying that maybe Sophia misheard him or didn’t know her left from her right and went in a different direction. Rick tells Shane she heard him just fine. I was trying to tune them out while I walked around the creek bed looking for tracks or any signs of which direction she went in. Her tracks, and Rick’s, were all over the sides of the creek bed. She could have gone in any direction. I needed some more time to really try and figure out which direction she was going. I figured Rick knew my tracking skills from talking to Summer and that is why he asked me to come along.

 

“Hey short round!” I yelled over to Glenn, “Move over! You’re mucking up the trail!”

 

Everyone looked over at me as if I said the magic words. I had finally figured out which direction her tracks were leading among the massive amount of tracks around the creek bed. I waved for them to follow me and lead them in the direction Sophia’s tracks were going. After walking for a while Rick told Shane and Glenn to go back to the highway to tell the group what we found and leave the two of us to continue following the trail. We continued to walk for a while and we discovered she was heading in the direction that Rick told her to go for a good portion of the way and then they split off and went in a completely differently direction. Eventually we came to a stop.

 

“Tracks stop here,” Rick said.

 

“No, they’re faint,” I said matter-of-factly, it always pissed me off when people who knew jack shit about tracking thought they knew everything.

 

“How can you tell, there’s just leaves and dirt,” Rick said and I immediately regretted getting pissed off at him.

 

“You want a lesson in tracking? Or do you wanna find that little girl and get the hell off the interstate?” I asked.

 

Rick nodded knowing I was right and there was no use in me teaching him how to track. We continued on in the general direction of her tracks since they had faded substantially and ended up coming across a walker. Rick and I exchanged looks, hoping that this walker hadn’t gotten Sophia, and I shot it through the head with my crossbow. Rick and I made our way over to the walker silently agreeing that if the worst-case scenario was true that he would be the one to tell Carol about it. I yanked my arrow out of its head and Rick and I immediately started checking it for any signs of it coming across Sophia. We found skin in the walker’s teeth and Rick looked at me, pulling his knife from his belt.

 

“I’ll do it. How many animals you cut and skinned before?” I asked him and he nodded putting his knife back.

 

I was preparing myself for the worse. I did not want to find this little girl in this piece of shit’s stomach. I cut the walker open and began to gut it. I reached my hand in and started feeling around for the stomach.

 

“Yeah, had a big meal not long ago. I can feel it in there,” I told Rick.

 

I found the stomach and pulled it out and before cutting it open Rick and I exchanged looks. He nodded and I cut the stomach open.

 

“This ghost bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch,” I said looking at Rick wiping my hands clean on my pants.

 

“At least we know,” he said.

 

“At least we know,” I agreed and we headed back in the direction of the highway knowing we weren’t going to find her tonight because we were losing light pretty fast.

 

**Summer’s POV**

Not long after they left to go into the woods on the Sophia search Glenn and Shane came back and Lori and I immediately assumed the worst. They explained that Daryl had found her tracks and the two of them would continue tracking her through the woods while we cleared a car path on the highway big enough for the RV and the cars to go through. I let out a sigh of relief and I could feel Lori grip my arm in relief as well. The two of us seemed to constantly be in the same boat of our husbands putting themselves in dangerous situations that could get them killed, but it was always a relief knowing they were still alive.

 

“We’re not going anywhere until my little girl comes back,” Carol said coming up next to me.

 

“That goes without saying,” Lori replies.

 

I grabbed Carol and asked her to come help me go up the highway a bit to gather more supplies from the cars to keep her mind occupied since I couldn’t really help with the car moving without risking sending myself into premature labor. Not like it really mattered at this point because I had come to reason that we were going to have this baby on this highway anyway. But still, my main priority was to try and keep Carol as sane as possible or she would probably go into those woods herself and the last thing the group needed was to lose someone else.

 

We had found a few good things in the cars. Some clothes and more food and water and we were having some idle chit -chat. Keeping the subject off of children and things of that nature. Mostly we talked about our lives before all of this. She wanted to know all about what Daryl was like before the world ended and I had informed her that he was pretty much the same. This caused her to smile and tell me it’s good that at least this world didn’t change everyone. We started walking back toward the group with our findings and saw everyone convening around a car Shane had managed to start. As we got closer we heard the sound of a security broadcast coming through the radio speakers. You could literally feel the excitement and tension building among us when Shane dismisses it as an old broadcast and shuts off the car and we all looked at each other and went back to doing what we were doing before the small, however futile, glimmer of hope started coming through the car speakers. Carol and I brought the supplies we found over to Dales RV and began to sort them into piles to see which we could actually use and which we should just leave on the highway.

 

Just before nightfall Daryl and Rick rejoined the group without Sophia and I gripped Carol’s hand as they approached us. They told us that the trail went cold and they couldn’t find Sophia but they had a feeling she was still out there but they were losing light and should continue the search in the morning. Rick informs the group that Daryl will take point in the search seeing as he has the most experience with tracking through the woods. Suddenly it became apparent that Rick and Daryl were covered in blood.

 

“Why are you covered in blood?” Carol said holding back sobs.

 

“Took down a walker,” Daryl said.

 

“There was no sign it was near Sophia,” Rick said trying to calm Carol down.

 

“How can you be so sure?” Carol asked beginning to become hysterical.

 

“Cut the sommabitch open,” Daryl replied and walked over to the RV.

 

Lori and I went to sit down with Carol and try to calm her nerves as best as possible by continuing sorting through the supplies we found around the highway.


	14. Chapter 14

**Daryl’s POV**

In the morning we started the rescue party for Sophia. Everyone was going into the woods for the search except Dale and T-Dog because Dale needed to fix the RV and T-Dog was still too badly hurt from the cut on his arm. Summer was starting to strap herself with weapons to join us and I stopped her.

 

“You’re not comin,” I said.

 

“Like hell I ain’t,” she replied, “I’m gonna help you find that little girl.”

 

“No, you’re not,” I said firmly.

 

“Why the hell not, Daryl? The more eyes out there the better chances that girl’s got of being found!” She said started to get frustrated with me.

 

“You’re about to pop, Sum,” I said putting a hand on her shoulder, “I don’t want you running around the woods. What if somethin happens to ya? What if you get separated? I ain’t letting that happen. You stay here with Dale and T and keep safe, alright?”

 

I could see it in her face that she realized she was not going to win this argument. And she walked over and wrapped her arms around my waist and looked up at me. She had a number of emotions playing across her face and I just couldn’t pinpoint which one she was feeling the strongest at this point. She pushed herself up on her toes and kissed me telling me to be safe and bring Sophia back. I told her I would and went off with the group into the woods. We went back in the same direction Rick and I did the day before. When we reached the spot Rick and I gutted the walker in we continued on in the same direction. I wasn’t used to being the one everyone followed. I liked to hunt on my own. Sure, I went hunting with Merle on occasion and I did take Summer out a few times to teach her how to hunt cause she always wanted to learn but for the most part I liked to be alone. It was definitely something I had to get used to, leading a large group of people through the woods in search of a little girl. I wanted to split everyone up but that would do no good. We would cover more ground, sure, but there was always the risk of someone getting lost or getting bit, I wasn’t going to risk that.

 

After walking for a little bit longer we came across a small campsite with one single tent. I put my hand up to stop everyone and looked at Rick, slowly making my way over to the tent. I could vaguely hear Rick tell Carol to call out for Sophia softly because her voice should be the first she hears and I unzipped the tent. I stepped inside and there was nothing there but a horrible smell and a guy who clearly figured killing himself was the best option in a time like this. I grabbed the guy’s gun and put it through my belt and could hear Carol calling for Sophia. I walked out of the tent and shook my head. I could see that Carol was starting to fall apart and Rick put his hand on her shoulder to steady her. I motioned for everyone to follow me and we continued on the course we were already heading on.

 

We had been walking for hours and coming up with nothing and I was about to suggest turning back and starting fresh tomorrow when we heard church bells in the distance. Everyone started running in the direction of the sound calling for Sophia. We reached a clearing and saw the church and ran toward it. Shane was shouting about there being no steeple, there was no way she could be ringing the bells if there was no steeple. No one seemed to care. We made our way into the church and took out the small group of walkers that was inside before splitting up and walking around the area around the church looking for Sophia. As I was making a pass around the church the bells rang again. It sounded like it was just around the corner. Everyone joined me and I noticed a speaker mounted to the top of the building.

 

“They’re on a timer, the damn bells are on a timer!” I said.

 

I was getting frustrated. It seemed like every possible hopeful lead we had turned out to be a dead end. I could see that Carol was beginning to become weary about all of this and so could Rick and Shane. Shane suggested we go back to the interstate and double back to see if there was anything we missed while him, Rick, and Carl checked the woods around the church for an hour or so just to cover a little more ground because even if Sophia didn’t ring the bells she could have heard them and come in the direction of the sound. We agreed that that was probably the best idea. We wanted to make it back to the interstate by nightfall anyway. We split up and headed back toward the interstate.

 

**Summer’s POV**

Dale, T-Dog and I sat around the RV taking a break from sorting through all the supplies and Dale reveals to us that he finished fixing the RV yesterday and the only reason he keeps pantomiming tinkering with it is to give us more time to find Sophia. I had to admire Dale for his commitment to the group, I really did. T-Dog starts to freak out about leaving and then starts going off about how we were left behind because we were the weak ones, no one valued us as part of the group.

 

“Oh shut up, T,” I finally said, “You’re seriously injured, I’m pregnant, and as far as everyone else is concerned Dale needs to fix the RV. Daryl and Rick both know I’m a good shot and Daryl taught me how to track so I would be useful out there. Both of you are also good shots so you would be useful also, but you have to think about it this way. What if another group of survivors comes through and tries to loot our shit? We’d still need someone to stay behind and protect what’s ours.”

 

T-Dog nodded knowing I was right and Dale went over and felt his forehead saying he was burning up. He looked at his arm and noticed that the wound was seriously infected. The three of us decided to scavenge the cars again to try and find antibiotics or painkillers or something. The three of us searched for hours and couldn’t find anything but some cigarettes and a guitar. At this point all we had left to do was wait around for the group to return, hopefully with Sophia, so we could continue on our way.


	15. Chapter 15

**Daryl’s POV**

We were double and triple checking everything we were walking past on our double back toward the interstate. Everyone was beginning to get frustrated when a single gunshot rang out through the woods. Everyone began to panic and start talking about who shot it and what it was and I could see that Carol thought the worst, that the found Sophia, she was bit, and they had to do what needed to be done. Lori and Andrea were trying to console her and tell her that there was still hope and I was getting real fed up with them and their bullshit.

 

“I’ll tell ya what it’s worth, all this hopin’ and prayin’. Nothin’. I’ll tell ya why. Because we are gonna locate that little girl and she’s gonna be jus fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord!” I said and started to walk off in the direction of the interstate.

 

Everyone begins to follow me and we decide to call off the search for the day and pick it up in the morning because we were losing light. We continued back toward the interstate and Andrea started to veer off from the group. As we continued to walk we heard Andrea scream and ran over to find her. Out of nowhere a woman on a horse wielding a baseball bat came riding up, slammed the walker attacking Andrea in the head and stopped the horse.

 

“Lori? Lori Grimes?” the woman said, “There’s been an accident. Carl’s been shot. Rick sent me to get you. We have to hurry! Let’s go!”

 

Lori climbs on the horse with the woman.

 

“Are you crazy? You can’t go with her? We don’t even know who she is!” I said.

 

“You have a group on the interstate?” the woman asked.

 

“Yeah,” Glenn said.

 

“Back track to Fairbren Road, two miles down there’s a farm. Name’s Greene!” She said and rode off in the direction she came with Lori.

 

I shot an arrow through the walker’s head because the girl’s hit with the bat didn’t kill it and we headed back to the highway as quickly as we possibly could. When we got there Dale told us the RV was fixed and we told them about Carl and the woman on the horse taking Lori and about the farm she told us to find. Dale told us about T-Dog’s infection and I walked over to the motorcycle and pulled out Merle’s stash. I tossed Dale a bottle of painkillers and Doxycycline for T-Dog.

 

“Merle got the clap on occasion,” I said with a shrug.

 

Carol kept going on about how she didn’t want to leave without Sophia and we agreed to stay the night with her and set up supplies and a sign for Sophia in the morning just incase she came back. Dale told Glenn to take T-Dog to the farm tonight to see if there was someone there who could take care of his arm and he agreed. The two of them left and we went about our routine of sorting through the supplies to figure out what to take and what to leave for Sophia. Halfway through our sorting I could see that there was something wrong with Summer. She was sitting next to Andrea and her face went white and she gripped Andrea’s shoulder. From the look on Andrea’s face I could tell she was grabbing pretty hard.

 

“I’m having contractions,” Summer said barely audible and I could see her look down and sure enough, her water had broken.

 

I looked at Dale and he immediately got up. I ran over to Summer and helped her into the RV. I got her laid down on the floor because she couldn’t make it to the bed. I grabbed her a pillow and lifted her head up, placing the pillow under it. That’s when she started screaming. I grabbed her hand and she was squeezing.

 

“It’s ok, it’ll be ok,” I told her, “You’re gonna be fine. We knew this was going to be happening soon.”

 

“Just shut the fuck up Daryl,” she spat at me, “oh God this hurts.”

 

The contractions came and went for the rest of the day and they finally subsided enough for her to get some sleep. When she finally fell asleep I grabbed my gun and asked Dale to keep an eye on her because I wanted to walk down the highway a bit to look for Sophia. Andrea said she wanted to come along and we went on a walk down the highway. We went into the woods, staying close enough to the highway so I could hear if something happened to Summer, and I told Andrea about how I was lost in the woods for nine days when I was younger and had to wipe my ass with poison oak. I told her how no one noticed how I was missing and when I finally found my way home first thing I did was make a sandwich. She laughed at my story and then her expression became serious.

 

“How do you feel about bringing a baby into all of this?” she asked me.

 

“What do you mean?” I asked.

 

“The world is hard enough for us to live in, how do you think a baby will make it?” she asked.

 

“Is that a serious question?” I asked her, “That’s my son. My first child. I don’t give a fuck if the world has gone to shit or not.”

 

“Fair enough,” she said.

 

We kept walking and came across a walker hanging in a tree. Andrea said she was going to be sick and I told her to just let it out, I was more than used to vomit from Summer and her morning sickness. She let it all out and we decided to head back to the RV.

 

**Summer’s POV**

 

I woke up to even more contractions and noticed Daryl wasn’t with me. I was beginning to panic and I heard Dale ask Carol to look in on me because Daryl and Andrea weren’t back yet and he wanted to look for them. The contractions came back in full force and I screamed for Carol. She came running into the RV and grabbed a wet towel and began to wipe the sweat off of my forehead.

 

“I can’t do this, Carol, I can’t do it,” I said crying.

 

“Yes you can,” she said soothingly, “you can do this. Just breathe. In and out.”

 

I tried to concentrate on my breathing but I couldn’t do it. Another contraction came and I let out another scream. Daryl came running into the RV. Carol looked at him hopefully and he shook his head. She stood up and walked out leaving me alone with Daryl.

 

“Get me another pillow, please,” I asked him.

 

He grabbed me a pillow and I put it over my face and screamed again as another contraction came. The pillow muffled the sound as well as I thought it would. I brought it away from my face and looked at Daryl. My face was covered in sweat and tears and I couldn’t stop myself from crying. Daryl grabbed my hand again.

 

“Hey, it’s ok,” he said brushing the hair from my face, “it’s almost light. Dale and Andrea have already started to set up the sign and supplies for Sophia. We’re gonna be out of here in no time. And when we get to the farm you can have the baby and everything is gonna be ok.”

 

“How can you be so sure?” I asked him squeezing his hand as another contraction came through.

 

“Because I’ve got faith, alright,” he said, “you were always the one telling me to be optimistic.”

 

I nodded at him and squeezed his hand again as the contractions were getting closer together. We needed to leave now because this baby was coming and would be here within the hour, no doubt. Daryl could tell from the look on my face what I was thinking and he stuck his head out of the RV and shouted that we had to go, now. Before I knew it the RV was being started up and we were heading toward the farm. Daryl was trying to keep me calm as every bump the RV hit made me feel like the baby was just going to pop out. We finally stopped and I sat up to see a farm outside the window and Daryl helped me up. We made our way out of the RV and Daryl was leading me in the direction of the house.

 

“SOMEONE! WE NEED HELP OUT HERE!” he shouted.

 

Rick came rushing out with an older man.

 

“RICK! SHE’S IN LABOR!” Daryl yelled over to Rick and him and the old man came running over.

 

“Summer, you alright?” Rick asked and I managed a nod gripping Daryl’s hand again, “This is Hershel. He’s a doctor. He can help.”

 

I looked at Hershel my eyes pleading with him and he led Daryl and I into the house. He laid me down on a bed and called for Maggie. A woman who I didn’t recognize, but Daryl seemed to, walked in and Hershel told her to get Patricia. Maggie walked out and came back a minute later with a blonde woman. Hershel instructed Daryl to get my pants off because he needed to check how dilated I was.

 

“This baby is coming any minute now,” Hershel said, “Summer? Are you ready? You’re 10 centimeters dilated, you need to be ready to push.”

 

I nodded.

 

“And you,” he said looking at Daryl.

 

“Daryl,” he replied.

 

“Daryl,” Hershel said, “I’m assuming you’re the father.”

 

Daryl nodded.

 

“You need to be ready for this too,” Hershel said, “we don’t have any drugs, and even if we did it would be too late to administer them now. She’s gonna be in pain, a lot of it. I need you to remind her to breathe and hold her hand. She’s gonna need it.”

 

Daryl nodded again and Hershel looked at me.

 

“Alright, Summer,” he said, “push.”

 

I pushed as hard as I could and let out a scream in the process. I was squeezing Daryl’s hand so hard I was sure I would break it. I could hear him telling me to breathe but I could barely register what he was saying.

 

“I can see it’s head, Summer, push again,” Hershel commanded.

 

I pushed again letting out another scream.

 

“Patricia, get the clamp, scissors, and some blankets and a bucket of warm water, this baby is almost here,” Hershel said to the blonde woman, “alright Summer, one more time. Push hard this time, it’s almost over.”

 

I pushed as hard as I could issuing one more blood curdling scream and then I heard the baby crying. I fell back against the bed breathing heavily. I heard the door open and I heard Hershel ask Daryl if he wanted to cut the cord. Next thing I knew I heard the baby crying, water being moved around, and he was in my arms. He was wrapped tightly in blankets and I looked at his face. It seemed like he was smiling. I looked over at Daryl and he was looking at the baby tears running down his face, smiling. He looked over at me and I smiled at him. He leaned in and kissed me.

 

“What are you gonna name him?” Maggie asked.

 

“Harry,” Daryl said.

 

“Do you have any formula?” Hershel asked, “He’s gonna need to eat. Patricia get the sutures. She tore a little, I need to stitch her up.”

 

Patricia nodded and walked out of the room.

 

“There’s some, in my bag in the RV, bottles too, but I don’t think it’s enough,” I said.

 

“Maggie, get someone from their group to get the formula and make a bottle,” Hershel instructed.

 

Maggie left the room and Patricia reentered.

 

“Daryl you’re gonna need to take the baby,” Hershel said, “I have to stitch her up and it’s going to hurt.”

 

He began to stitch and every prick of the needle felt white hot because I was already so sore. Shortly after Hershel said I was done and needed some rest. Maggie came back in with a bottle and handed it to Daryl. He sat down on the bed next to me feeding the baby and I fell asleep.


	16. Chapter 16

**Daryl’s POV**

I sat with Summer and the baby for a few hours until Hershel told me Summer was probably going to be sleeping for a few hours. I reluctantly left the baby with Hershel and Patricia and went outside to see if there was anything I could do to help with search for Sophia. I walked out of the house and headed to the camp. As I was walking I over heard Maggie say she was going on a run into town for medical supplies.

 

“Maggie,” I asked her, “would you be able to get some formula and any other things the baby would need on your run? If not I can go on a run myself.”

 

“For that sweet thing? Of course,” she said and smiled.

 

“Thank you,” I said and walked over to Rick.

 

We talked about a plan of where to look through the woods and I decided I’d be better off looking on my own.

 

“Daryl, you ok on your own?” Rick asked me.

 

“I’m better on my own. I’ll be back before dark,” I replied.

 

“We have a base now. We can find Sophia and you can spend time with your newborn son. You don’t owe us anything,” Rick said putting his hand on my shoulder.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” I said shrugging him off, “Check in on them for me?”

 

Rick nodded and I headed out into the woods. I was tracking for a while before I came across a small farmhouse that seemed to be abandoned. I checked the perimeter and walked in and checked the house for walkers and didn’t find any. I was checking through the kitchen and saw a small pantry. I opened it cautiously and saw that there was a small makeshift bed. I called for Sophia a few times and checked through the house and perimeter again before realizing that if she was here, she wasn’t here anymore. As I walked out of the building I saw a bunch of Cherokee Roses blooming near the house. I picked one for Carol and went back to the farm. When I got there I found Carol in the RV. She cleaned it up and told me she wanted it to look nice for Sophia. I handed her the rose and told her the story of the Cherokee Rose.

 

“I don’t think there are any flowers blooming for my brother, but I do believe that one bloomed for your little girl,” I said.

 

She smiled at me and I headed back to the house to see Summer and the baby.

 

**Summer’s POV**

I woke up a few hours later with the baby sleeping in a makeshift bassinet next to the bed. I heard a knock on the door and Rick walked in.

 

“How ya feeling?” he asked sitting down on the bed.

 

“I’m fine,” I said, “how’s Carl?”

 

“He’ll be just fine, he’s resting now,” Rick replied.

 

He looked over at the baby and smiled.

 

“He’s beautiful, Summer,” he said.

 

“Thank you,” I said with a smile, “Rick, where’s Daryl?”

 

“He’s in the woods helping the Sophia search,” Rick said.

 

I nodded not having the energy to get pissed off at him for leaving us. I looked up at Rick and the look in his eyes told me he knew Daryl would be fine. I knew he was right but I still worried. Anything could happen to him out there. I laid in bed for a few hours on Hershel’s orders and Maggie came in with more formula and some clothes for the baby. I got him dressed and as I was feeding him Daryl came in.

 

“Did you find her?” I asked as he took Harry to burp him.

 

“Nah,” he said, “I found a small farmhouse with a bed in the pantry. She could have been there but she’s not there anymore. How’s Harry been?”

 

“He’s been fine,” I said with a smile, “he’s been making adorable little baby noises and eating and sleeping. He hasn’t cried much. Maggie brought him a lot of stuff from the run she went on.”

 

“I asked her to,” he said.

 

“Well she pulled through,” I said and Daryl handed Harry back to me.

 

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to stay in here with you tonight or if I have to stay in the camp,” he said, “I haven’t had a chance to talk to Hershel.”

 

“Talk to me about what?” Hershel asked walking in.

 

“Staying here with Summer and the baby for the night,” Daryl said.

 

Hershel took the baby from me to obviously check him to make sure everything was alright. He handed him back and looked at Daryl.

 

“Stay with your wife and son,” Hershel said, “when she’s ready to be out on her feet, then you rejoin your camp.”

 

“Thank you,” Daryl said, “for everything.”

 

Hershel nodded and walked out of the room leaving us alone. We talked for a while before Daryl said he was heading back to the highway to get his motorcycle since he took the RV here with me. I told him to be safe and Harry and I were left alone again.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summer’s POV**

When I woke up the next morning Daryl was already gone and Hershel came in to check on the baby and I and he said I should be fine to walk around and rejoin the camp. I thanked Hershel for everything he’s done. I gathered Harry and the things Maggie had grabbed for him in town and went out to the camp. Everyone was more than thrilled to meet the baby. Carol helped me put our things into Daryl’s tent and brought up cooking for Hershel’s family to thank them for everything they’ve done. Lori and I agreed that it would be a great idea and we went about our day trying to set the camp up. I saw the men over by one of the trucks setting up a search for Sophia and went over to see what they were up to and say goodbye to Daryl before he left.

 

“I’ll take one of the horses and go up on this ridge, I should be able to get a birds eye view of the whole valley from there,” I heard Daryl said.

 

“That sounds like a good idea,” Rick said.

 

“What if you come across that chupacabra of yours?” Dale said as I approached.

 

“He’s going on about that chupacabra again?” I said with a laugh.

 

Daryl shook his head.

 

“You believe in a blood sucking dog?” Rick asked.

 

“You believe in dead people walking around?” Daryl shot back.

 

Daryl kissed me and the baby goodbye and promised he would come back safe and headed to the stables to find a horse.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

I saddled one of the horses and headed off into the woods to find Sophia. I shot down a squirrel and tied it to my belt figuring I would probably get hungry at some point on this search. I stopped the horse when I reached the ridge and looked over the valley. When I looked down at the creek I saw what looked like Sophia’s doll. I started to back the horse up to take a different route to get down to the creek and before I knew it the horse reared up and I was thrown down the ridge. I felt a sharp pain and let out a scream and looked down, one of my arrows had pierced through my side. _Fuck_. I ripped off a piece of my shirt and tied it around the arrow before bending down and picking up Sophia’s doll. I tied it to my belt and decided I should probably try to climb the ridge and get back to higher ground. I started climbing and got pretty far up before slipping and losing my grip and falling down the ridge again.

 

I woke up and saw Merle standing over me. He starts telling me that I need to kill Rick for what he did to him and I told him Rick was a good man.

 

“No one cares about you baby brother,” he said, “no one will ever care about you like I do.”

 

“Summer cares you prick, she’s always cared about me more than you have,” I told him.

 

I felt something tugging on my foot and woke up again to see a walker biting on my shoe. I fought the walker off and killed the walker with my knife. There was another walker coming from the far end of the creek and I pulled the arrow from my side while trying to scream. I loaded it into the crossbow as quickly as possible and shot the on coming walker in the head. I pulled the arrow from the walkers head and noticed my side was bleeding pretty bad. I took off my shirt and tied it around my waist as tight as possible to try and stop the bleeding. I pulled the squirrel from my belt and ate it before cutting the walkers ears off and stringing them on to the rope that was holding the squirrel and hung it around my neck. I made it to the ridge and went to climb it again. As I climbed I saw Merle again. He was calling me names and telling me that Rick turned me soft. I told him to shut the hell up and Rick was better than he would ever be and I wanted some place safe for Summer and the baby. I made it to the top of the ridge and headed back to camp.

 

**Summer’s POV**

 

To keep my mind off of worrying that Daryl hadn’t returned yet while everyone else had I fed the baby and went into the house to help the other women cook dinner for Hershel and his family. As we were cooking I heard Andrea yell something about a walker and Lori, Carol, and I ran outside to see what the commotion was all about. We see Rick, Shane, and Glenn run over with weapons to take care of it because Hershel doesn’t want guns on the property. Andrea aims and shoots and I heard Rick screaming.

 

“NO! ANDREA! IT’S DARYL!” Rick screamed.

 

My heart stopped. I handed Harry over to Carol and started running.

 

“DARYL!” I screamed as I ran.

 

Tears were streaming down my face when I reached them. I was panicking, he seemed to be ok, but he was passed out. He looked like a mess. He was covered in blood and had a necklace of walker ears around his neck. I was confused about what happened to him.

 

“Is he alright? Was he hit?!” I asked Rick and Shane.

 

“He’s fine, it just grazed his head,” Rick said, “we need to get him to Hershel.”

 

Rick pulled the walker ear necklace off of his neck and put it in his pocket. T-Dog picked up something Daryl had dropped and we noticed it was Sophia’s doll. Shane and Rick brought Daryl into the house and I walked over to Andrea.

“YOU!” I screamed, “YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM! WHY COULDN’T YOU JUST LET THE MEN HANDLE IT!? THEY WOULD HAVE REACHED HIM AND HE WOULDN’T BE SHOT AND PASSED OUT IN THE HOUSE RIGHT NOW! THANK GOD YOU’RE A TERRIBLE FUCKING SHOT OR MY HUSBAND WOULD BE FUCKING DEAD AND MY TWO DAY OLD SON WOULD BE FATHERLESS! I hope you feel like shit about this.”

 

I didn’t even wait for Andrea to respond. I walked over to Carol and Lori and took Harry and went inside to check on Daryl. I went into the room I was occupying yesterday and sat down. Daryl was awake and Hershel was stitching his head. I noticed he also had a bandage on his side.

 

“What happened to you?” I asked and started crying all over again.

 

Daryl explained about finding Sophia’s doll and the horse throwing him and how he fell down the ridge and impaled himself with one of his arrows. We went on to tell us about the walkers that attacked him and that he managed to climb back up the ridge and make it back here. Hershel tells Rick that Daryl needs his rest and puts his hand on my shoulder before walking out. Daryl laid back on the bed and I stroked his hair trying to get him to fall asleep. Not long later there was a knock on the door and Carol walked in holding two trays of food and a bottle.

 

“Figured you wouldn’t eat if I didn’t bring you any,” Carol said putting the trays down on the end tables next to the bed, “you did more today for my little girl than her daddy did in her whole life.”

 

“Didn’t do anything Rick or Shane wouldn’ta done,” Daryl replied.

 

“You’re just as good as them,” Carol said.

 

I smiled up at Carol as a thank you and she left the room saying goodnight closing the door behind her. I picked up the bottle she left and fed Harry while trying to convince Daryl to eat something. Once I had gotten them both to eat I ate the dinner myself and climbed into the bed next to Daryl, hoping I could actually find sleep with everything that had happened.


	18. Chapter 18

**Daryl’s POV**

A few days later Summer and I moved out of the house and back into our tent. I was lying on the cot while Summer was sitting on the floor playing with Harry when Andrea walked in. She was holding a book and began to apologize for shooting me.

 

“You were protecting the camp. We’re good,” I told her and she went to leave.

 

As she was walking out of our tent I could see Summer glaring at her. She was never going to let Andrea live down the fact that she shot at me. Summer wasn’t usually one to stay mad at someone but when it came to someone doing something to me, she would hold a grudge for a life time.

 

“But hey,” I said and Andrea turned around, “shoot me again, you best pray I’m dead.”

 

Andrea nodded and exited the tent. We sat there for a little while just talking. I was mostly trying to calm Summer down because I knew she was just going to be furious all day just from Andrea coming to try and apologize. Eventually Shane came by the tent and asked Summer to help out with gun training. She agreed to help out and left the baby with me for the day, which I was more than grateful for. I wanted to spend some quality time with my son. I spent the day trying to help out around the camp all while carrying Harry around but that proved to be useless so instead I just hung around in one of the folding chairs by our fire and played with Harry. It felt like years before Summer came back.

 

“How was gun training?” I asked while feeding Harry.

 

“It was good, strange,” she said with a laugh sitting next to me.

 

“Strange?” I asked.

 

“I’ve always been used to being taught, not doing the teaching,” she said.

 

“Well, you were a good student, so I guess that could make you a good teacher,” I said putting the finished bottle down and going to burp Harry.

 

“You’re so good with him,” she said, “I would have never thought when I met you in that bar that day that you would be such a great dad.”

 

“I was a different person then,” I said, “and to be fair I didn’t think when I met you that day that the world would have gone to shit either.”

 

“Fair enough,” she said with a laugh.

 

I rocked Harry to sleep and handed him over to Summer.

 

“We need to figure out some kind of crib situation for him,” I said as we walked back over to our tent.

 

“I’ll ask Hershel if he has a basket or something that we can put some blankets in,” she replied.

 

“Good idea,” I said and she handed Harry back to me and walked over to the house.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summer’s POV**

I had managed to find an old fruit crate to fill with blankets as a crib for Harry. It worked out pretty well, although he spent most of the night tossing and turning and just fussing in general. He wasn’t all that used to sleeping outside. And every time he made any sound it made me nervous that he would be attracting a group of walkers. But when we woke up and noticed nothing had changed I began to let myself not stress about it.

 

I got Harry dressed for the day and laid him in his crib while I got dressed myself pulling on a pair of jeans, a plain white t-shirt, biker boots, and Daryl’s leather angel wing vest which he either didn’t feel like wearing today or just forgot to put it on. I picked up Harry and made my way over to the fire pit area where everyone was already seated having breakfast. I sat down in the seat next to Daryl and he motioned for me to hand him Harry as he picked up a bottle and placed a plate of food on my lap. I handed Harry over and Daryl fed him as I ate the scrambled eggs and fruit that was sitting on my plate. I had to say, ever since being with this group I was eating a hell of a lot better than I was eating when I was on my own. Everyone was eating in silence and it struck me as odd. Most mornings everyone was talking to one another about something, but not today. Lori seemed overly tense and Dale kept glancing at Glenn like he knew something and I could see Carol giving Andrea looks, clearly as a repercussion for shooting Daryl. I was about to say something to break the silence when Glenn did it for me.

 

“I can’t take it anymore,” he said and we all looked at him, “Lori is pregnant and the barn is full of walkers.”

 

I could see Lori’s face turn bright red and look down at her knees and then raise her head to look at Glenn because clearly the second part of his sentence was more alarming than the first.

 

“There’s what?!” I said dropping my fork.

 

“The entire barn is filled with walkers,” Glenn repeated.

 

I looked over at Daryl as everyone started to panic. I knew if he wasn’t in the middle of feeding the baby he would have jumped up and ran over to the barn, much like Shane was doing at the moment. Daryl got up and handed Harry to me as he finished his bottle and started off toward the barn. I pulled the towel from my back pocket and placed it on my shoulder and began to burp Harry as I followed my husband.

 

“We need to keep someone on guard down here at all times,” Shane said, “Andrea get your gun and keep first watch.”

 

“Don’t do that,” Rick said, “you know Hershel doesn’t allow guns on his property. Let me talk to him and see what we can do from there.”

 

“I don’t give a flying fuck if Hershel doesn’t want guns,” Shane replied, “I want to be able to keep our camp safe. You want these things getting out and going over to where we sleep? Where Lori sleeps?! Where Carl sleeps!? Andrea stay on guard. Go ahead and talk to Hershel, we still need a guard.”

 

I could see the look of panic on Daryl’s face as we all walked back over toward the camp and Andrea went into the RV to get her gun and Rick went off in search of Hershel to obviously talk to him. I didn’t see the point in having someone on guard right this minute. From where I was standing I could see that the barn was clearly chained and padlocked shut. There was no way those walkers were getting out of there.

 

“They could still get out, ya know?” Daryl said as if he was reading my mind.

 

“How ya figure?” I asked him unzipping our tent and stepping inside.

 

“They can still break through the wood if they get riled up enough and all pile on, and then the chain and lock would mean nothing,” He said as I laid Harry down in his crib, “I’ve seen huge herds of them break down fences…wooden and chainlink. If they can do that they can break through a barn. Still think we don’t need a guard?”

 

“I guess it’s good that Andrea is down there then,” I said sitting down, “and I know I’ve asked you this a thousand times, but seriously, can you read minds? Because how the hell did you know that’s what I was thinking.”

 

“You forget that I’ve known you for nine years and I can tell exactly what you’re thinking just by the look on your face,” he said crossing the tent to kneel in front of me, “Now, for more pressing matters. Can I have my vest back.”

 

“No, you forgot to put it on this morning there for I have every right to wear it,” I said and he leaned forward and kissed me.

 

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He laid me back on the bed and was hovering over me, never breaking the kiss, and started fiddling with the button on my pants when Harry started crying. We broke apart and I couldn’t help but laugh. Daryl looked so upset it was funny. I walked over to Harry, picked him up, and noticed he had a dirty diaper. I pulled over a chair and laid Harry down on it and held him in place before I grabbed a diaper.

 

“Don’t look so distressed,” I said to Daryl with a laugh as I started to undress Harry.

 

“Can’t we get a baby sitter for a while,” he said laughing.

 

“What do they charge now a days anyway?” I said

 

“At least fifteen an hour,” he said coming over to help me.

 

“I can’t afford that,” I said finishing up by fastening the diaper and starting to redress the baby.

 

“But seriously,” he said taking Harry from me so I could clean up, “I don’t think we have had a second to ourselves in months.”

 

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, the world did end and I was pregnant for most of it,” I said cleaning everything up.

 

“True, but you forget that I didn’t see you for two months,” he said.

 

“Fair enough, maybe I can find a way to scrounge up fifteen dollars,” I said with a smirk and went out of the tent to join the group.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summer’s POV**

Everyone was tense over the next few days because everyone was still taking turns keeping watch at the barn. Rick said he was in talks with Hershel but nothing seemed to be coming out of it. Finally one day it was like everyone snapped. Rick was missing for most of the day when he was supposed to be going on the search for Sophia with Andrea, Shane, and Daryl but wasn’t back when he said he was going to be. We heard that he went somewhere with Hershel because Hershel needed his help but that was it. Everyone was starting to wonder what was going on. Finally Shane got fed up and started handing out guns to everyone. He shoved a gun into Daryl’s hand and went to hand me one. Daryl shot him a look because I was still holding the baby and Shane turned and handed the gun to Andrea and said we needed to protect ourselves.

 

“We should probably go look for Rick,” Andrea suggested.

 

“There’s no need there he is,” I said pointing over to him walking with Hershel and Jimmy.

 

“What the hell is he doing?!” Shane shouted and ran in their direction.

 

After looking over at them I noticed they had walkers on poles and were leading them toward the barn. Everyone followed them because Shane was on a rampage. He was screaming at Rick and all Rick could do was tell him to calm down. I stayed a little farther back from the group just incase things escalated and shots were fired. I wanted to make sure Harry was safe. I reached the barn and everyone was screaming. It was hard to make out anything. Daryl came over toward me and stood in front of me to protect me and the baby.

 

“If these people were alive could I do this?!” Shane shouted and shot three rounds into the chest of the walker Hershel was holding, “Three shots to the chest! A living person could not withstand that! That would take them down!”

 

“Shane! Enough!” Rick said.

 

“You’re right Rick,” Shane said walking toward Hershel, “it is enough.”

 

He walked right up to the walker he just shot and shot it through the head. It dropped and so did Hershel it a fit of tears. Harry started crying immediately due to the sound of the gun being fired and I tried my best to calm him down. The sound of his crying riled up the walkers in the barn and they started slamming into the barn door. Before they could even attempt to break out Shane busted the doors open and walkers started flooding the yard. Everything happened so fast. Daryl pushed me back and everyone started firing rounds. I stood there doing my best to stop Harry from crying while covering his ears in an attempt to muffle the sound of the gunshots. Finally everything was done and Hershel’s entire family was on their knees in the dirt crying. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse and Daryl started to make his way back toward me one last walker walked through the doors. Everyone’s heart stopped. There, advancing toward us was Sophia. Carol shrieked and Daryl dove over to her and held her back from running toward Sophia. She was crying hysterically and Daryl was attempting to keep her calm. I could hear Daryl telling Carol not to look. Rick walked toward the center of the group and held up his gun and without missing a beat shot Sophia in the head. Carol screamed again and pushed Daryl off of her before running off in the opposite direction of the barn. Everyone was distraught. I stood there motionless while Harry continued to scream in my arms. I felt like I was going to be sick. That poor little girl who hadn’t done any harm to anyone was dead, all because of those flesh eating bastards.

 

“Summer, hey, Sum,” I heard Daryl say and that brought me back to reality.

 

He had Harry in his arms and he had finally stopped crying. I hadn’t even realized Daryl had taken him from me. I just stood there staring at him wide-eyed. He put his arm around my shoulder and guided me back toward our tent. Once inside he laid Harry in his crib and I broke down. I just started to cry. I barely knew the little girl but her death affected me. Maybe it was motherly instinct, I’m not sure, but I was torn apart by this. Daryl was by my side almost instantly wrapping his arms around my and pulling me close to him. We sat there for a few minutes and he just rubbed my back and let me cry it out. I didn’t even have to say anything. He knew what I was thinking. He knew that I was torn apart by the fact that someone so innocent had to die in such a brutal way. He also knew my worry for our son’s safety was higher than ever. If those things attacked the camp Harry would be helpless. He was only a week old. He couldn’t fend for himself or fight off an attacker. I was working myself up and I started to hyperventilate.

 

“Summer,” Daryl said and I just stared at the ground, “hey! Summer! Look at me!”

 

It look him raising his voice to get me to turn my face toward him.

 

“Nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to happen to you or Harry,” he said, “I won’t let it.”

 

“How can you be so sure? Look what happened to Sophia!” I shouted, “She was just a little girl!”

 

“I know, she didn’t deserve to die, but I can promise you I will protect the two of you at any cost and you know that. Remember that night in your apartment when we were watching those zombie movies and you were so freaked out you wanted to sleep with the light on?” He asked wrapping his arms around me and I nodded, “Do you remember what I said to you?”

 

“You said you would never let anything happen to me,” I replied simply.

 

“Exactly,” he said, “and I failed once by leaving you alone in the house that day but I am not going to fail again. Sophia’s fate is not what’s in store for you or our son. Got it?”

 

“Got it,” I said finally regaining my composure and wiping the tears from my face.

 

He pulled me close to him again and I buried my head in his chest. He rubbed my back and kissed the top of my head before pulling me in tighter. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him tighter. I knew he was going to protect us at any cost but I still felt like I needed to just sit here and hold him. What if I woke up one day and he was taken from me just like Sophia was taken from Carol?


	21. Chapter 21

**Daryl’s POV**

Summer wanted some time alone to kind of recuperate and get herself together. I picked up Harry and went to see how everything was going. All the bodies were separated and all we did was make sure Hershel’s family and Sophia got actual burials. It was almost time for the funeral and I went to get Summer and Carol. Summer and I walked over to the RV to get Carol.

 

“We’re ready to have the funeral,” Summer said, “you ready?”

 

“Why should I be?” Carol said.

 

“Because that was your little girl,” I said starting to get annoyed.

 

“That thing is not my little girl,” Carol said, “Sophia died a long time ago.”

 

Summer could tell that I was getting pissed off at Carol because of this. She grabbed my arm and nodded at me knowing that it was best that we just leave and attend this funeral without her. The two of us walked out of the RV and headed toward the burial site. The funeral for everyone was more than emotional and I could see that Summer was getting emotional all over again. She gripped my hand as tight as possible to keep her composure. When everything was all said and done everyone went their separate ways. Summer and I made our way back over to our campsite which I had moved a little farther away from everyone else. Summer sat down in front of the tent with Harry in her lap while I sat a little ways away whittling some wood into arrows.

 

“Listen, Beth's in some catatonic shock. We need Hershel,” I heard Lori say and looked up at her.

 

“Yeah. So what?” I said to her.

 

“So I need you to run in to town real quick and bring him and Rick back,” she said and I just went back to what I was doing, “Daryl?”

 

“Your bitch went window-shopping. You want him? Fetch him yourself. I got better things to do,” I said and I could see the look on Summer’s face telling me to be nice but I didn’t care anymore.

 

“What's the matter with you? Why would you be so selfish?” she asked me and that’s when I got really pissed.

 

“Selfish?” I said getting up and in her face, “Listen to me, Olive Oyl. I was out there looking for that little girl every single day. I took an arrow and a bullet in the process. Don't you talk to me about getting my hands dirty! You want those two idiots? Have a nice ride. I'm done looking for people.”

 

“Daryl!” Summer yelled at me getting up.

 

“What?!” I shouted at her and walked into our tent.

 

**Summer’s POV**

As Daryl stormed into the tent I went after Lori who stormed off in the opposite direction. I finally caught up to her as she was approaching the house.

 

“Lori, wait up!” I said and she turned around.

 

“What, Summer?” she spat at me.

 

“I’m just here to apologize for Daryl’s behavior. I don’t know what’s gotten in to him lately he’s just a very complex person and he gets emotional over the most random things,” I said.

 

“You really need to keep him in check,” Lori said and I bit my tongue or I would have gone off on her as well, “he can’t be going around yelling at people for no reason. It’s not going to do him any good.”

 

I just nodded and she went into the house and I walked back over to the tent. Daryl was sitting down outside again whittling the wood into arrows.

 

“What the hell was that all about?!” I said to him.

 

“What?” he asked.

 

“Are you nuts?! All she did was ask you for help,” I said, “and you freaked out on her for no fucking reason!”

 

“Because, Summer no one needs to be asking me or you for any help,” he said, “We can fend for ourselves and we don’t need to owe anything to anyone and that’s all favors do, they put you in people’s debt.”

 

“I don’t even know who you are right now,” I said shaking my head and walking toward the house.

 

I asked Carol if she would look after Harry for a little while and then went to find Lori. She was about to get into Maggie’s car and I grabbed the car door before she shut it.

 

“I’m coming with you to get them,” I said and Lori nodded.

 

I made my way around the side of the car and climbed into the passenger’s seat. We drove down the road and went toward the town. As the two of us were trying to read the map Lori slammed into a walker and the car flipped and rolled off the road. I slammed my head pretty hard and blacked out. When I finally woke up I had no idea how long I was out. I saw that Lori was still out and shook her. She came around and I asked her if she was all right. Before she could respond there were walkers reaching through the car’s windows trying to grab at us. We managed to fight them off and get out of the car. They were coming toward us faster than before and I pulled the knife from my boot and Lori managed to break the shifter off the steering column and we took down both the walkers.

 

“Are you ok, did you get bit?” I asked her checking her arms.

 

“I’m ok, are you?” She asked me grabbing my arms as well.

 

“I’m fine,” I replied, “we should probably just keep going on foot. Sitting around here isn’t going to do us any good we could be attacked again.”

 

“Good point,” she said and we made our way toward the direction of town.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

I hadn’t seen Summer in a while and I was beginning to worry. I was trying not to let it get to me though because there had been plenty of times when we had gotten into fights and one of us would storm off and disappear for hours or even days at a time.

 

“Have you seen Lori?” Carol asked and I looked up at her.

 

“Not since this afternoon,” I replied, “that dumb bitch must have gone off looking for them. She asked me to go, I told her I’m done being an errand boy.”

 

“Don’t do this Daryl,” she said, “I already lost my little girl.”

 

“That ain’t my problem neither,” I said and turned my back on her.

 

“I’m just going to feed Harry then,” she said bitterly and walked off.

 

That’s when everything clicked. I hadn’t seen Summer in hours, no one had seen Lori, she left Harry with Carol. I started to freak out. Summer probably went off with Lori to try and make everything right. Before I knew it I was being approached by Shane.

 

“I’m going out to look for Lori and Summer, I figured you would want to come with me,” he said.

 

“Absolutely,” I said grabbing my crossbow and jumping in his car.

 

I didn’t particularly like Shane but making this drive with him I could at least put up with to find Summer. As we drove toward town on the empty road we passed Maggie’s car trashed on the side of the road. Shane pulled over immediately and we parked and jumped out of the car to survey the scene. We noticed two dead walkers next to the car and there was nothing in the car. It looked like they got out all right and we got back in the car. A little ways down the road we saw the two of them walking. Shane beeped the horn and they turned around as he put the car in park. I jumped out and ran over to Summer and Shane ran over to Lori.

 

“Are you ok? Did you get bit?” I asked Summer frantically scanning her body for bites and scratches.

 

“I’m fine,” she said looking at me.

 

I adjusted the crossbow on my back and pulled her into my arms.

 

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to her.

 

“We can talk about this later,” she said.

 

I heard Shane telling Lori that Rick and Hershel were back at the farm to persuade her to go with us. I was about to say something but Shane shot me a look and I kept my mouth shut. We got Summer and Lori in the car and headed back to the farm. We pulled into the farm and Lori got out screaming for Rick. When she realized that he wasn’t there she turned on Shane and that was my cue to get Summer back to our tent. We reached the tent and she sat down on the chair outside pulling her sweatshirt tightly around her.

 

“I’m sorry about earlier,” I said sitting at her feet, “I shouldn’t have freaked out on you like that. You were just trying to help.”

 

I saw Summer look over me and wave and Carol approached us. She handed Harry over and looked like she was about to say something when Summer gave her a look and she nodded and walked off.

 

“I just want to know why you’ve been so on edge lately,” she said rocking Harry, “It’s so not like you. I understand that everything is on edge every day because of what the world has come to but you can’t be. You have to keep a level head. Freaking out and being a dick to people never got you anywhere Daryl. In the entire time I’ve known you being a dick is literally the worst thing for you.”

 

“Well I’m sorry that I’m scared alright!” I said, “I can’t lose you or Harry. Do you understand that?! I have to push people away. I have to keep you safe. Do you understand how I felt when I realized you went off with Lori and then when I saw the walkers and the car wrecked like that. I can’t go through that again. I’m gonna protect us, me and that’s it.”

 

“Daryl, I know you want to protect us and I know you will, but we need people. We can’t do anything without people anymore,” she said, “There is safety in numbers, Daryl. I know you want to be the only one I rely on and you know that that will always be true but sometimes we need other people’s help with things.”

 

“Maybe you’re right,” I finally said, “but I can’t make any promises on being nice to anyone.”

 

“Just promise me you’ll try,” she said.

 

“Promise,” I replied and leaned up to kiss her, “let’s get some sleep.”

 

She nodded and we went into the tent and put Harry to sleep before going to sleep ourselves.


	22. Chapter 22

**Daryl’s POV**

I woke up in the morning to Sumer kissing my forehead and Harry moving around and making normal baby noises.

 

“Good morning,” Summer said smiling, “T-Dog came by a little while ago asking if you wanted to help him and Shane go into town to get Rick, Hershel, and Glenn. They still haven’t come back yet. I told him I would let him know when you woke up.”

 

“Yeah, I’ll go,” I said rubbing my eyes, “let T know while I get dressed.”

 

She nodded and picked up Harry before walking out of the tent. I got dressed and made my way over to the house where I noticed everyone was. I adjusted my bow on my shoulder and approached T-Dog.

 

“We ready to go?” I asked.

 

“Just about,” T-Dog said, “just waiting on Shane. He’s in the house.”

 

“Alright. Let’s go,” Shane said jogging down the steps.

 

We were about to pile in the car when another car pulled up and Rick, Hershel, and Glenn got out.

 

“Who’s that in the car?” T-Dog asked.

 

“That,” Glenn said, “is Randall.”

 

“What the hell are we supposed to do with him?” Summer asked.

 

“For right now we will put him in the barn. His leg is torn up pretty bad. I’m gonna patch him up as best as possible and then we can figure out where to go from there,” Hershel said, “Daryl can you help Rick and I get him in the barn?”

 

I nodded and helped Rick get him in the barn and we padlocked it shut. We walked back over to the group and I heard T-Dog suggest putting someone on watch at the barn just incase Randall tried to escape. Andrea, of course, was the first to volunteer. We agreed to let her do it because none of us really wanted to especially because we had just gotten off guard duty from having the walkers in the barn. We just decided to have Andrea do it and go about our normal daily activities.

 

**Summer’s POV**

A few days after Randall showed up Rick and Shane decided to drive him out a few miles away from the farm and leave him. I didn’t think it was the humane thing to do but I wanted to stay out of it. It wasn’t my job to make any decisions. Daryl and I were sitting outside of our tent. He was feeding Harry and I was trying to tidy up the tent as best as I could.

 

“Daryl could you do me a favor,” I heard Rick say.

 

I hadn’t even heard the car pull up. I had no idea they were even back.

 

“What’s up?” I heard Daryl reply and I walked out of the tent.

 

I smiled at Rick and he nodded at me before continuing to talk to Daryl.

 

“We found out that Randall went to high school with Maggie,” Rick said, “we brought him back. He’s locked in the barn again. Andrea is on guard again. I was wondering if you would mind having a little chat with Randall. See if he will tell you anything about his group because he’s pretty much done talking to me and Shane.”

 

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him for ya,” Daryl said, “just let me finish feeding the baby.”

 

“Take your time,” Rick said, “he’s not going anywhere.”

 

Rick nodded at me again and walked off toward his own tent.

 

“Don’t go too hard on him,” I said to Daryl taking Harry from him to burp him so he could get going, “find out what’s up with him but don’t get to crazy with yourself. I know how you get when you feel like you or someone you care about is threatened.”

 

“I’ll be on my best behavior, I promise,” he said and kissed me before walking off toward the barn.

 

I finished burping Harry and figured I would go hang out with Lori and Carol while Daryl went to do whatever he needed to do with Randall.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

 

I walked into the barn and closed the door behind me. Randall immediately looked up, expecting the worst, and he was gonna get it.

 

“How many of you are there?” I asked him sitting down on the stool that was in the barn.

 

“Thirty,” he said, “Lots of weapons. I’ll tell you whatever you want, just don’t hurt me. Try and convince them to let me go. I’m just a normal guy. I liked to hang out with my friends and sit on the internet. I never did any of the horrible things my group did. I swear.”

 

“How am I supposed to believe that?” I asked him standing up and walking close to him, “You were shooting at my people just like the other people you were with. How do I know you wouldn’t do these so called terrible things.”

 

“Because the guys in my group, they’re ruthless,” Randall said, “we came across a group like yours a little while back. There was a family. A dad and his two daughters. They were cute, like that Summer girl that’s around here.”

 

As soon as I heard Summer’s name I started to get pissed.

 

“That Summer girl is my wife, so you better watch what comes out of your mouth next,” I said and punched him, “now keep talking.”

 

“I didn’t mean anything by saying anything about her, I swear,” he said and I lifted my fist and he flinched, “the guys in my group, they had their way with the daughters and made the dad watch. It was horrible. But I had nothing to do with that I swear. I would never do anything like that. But these guys aren’t even looking for me, you don’t have to worry about anything.”

 

I punched him again.

 

“I don’t have to worry about anything?” I said punching him again, “my wife and son are in this camp like hell I don’t have anything to worry about. They will probably come looking for you. It’s what people do. They want to keep their group together.”

 

“They left me for dead!” Randall shouted, “They aren’t coming to look for me!”

 

“Like hell they ain’t,” I said and punched him again, “I’m done with you for now. Be thankful I didn’t beat you down even worse.”

 

I walked out of the barn and locked the door behind me and walked over to the group around the fire. I pulled my bandana out after walking up there and started to clean my bloody knuckles.

 

“What did he say?” Summer asked.

 

“There’s thirty of them, heavily armed,” I said, “we have to be ready. From what he told me if they roll through our men will be dead and our women will wish they were.”

 

I saw the look on Rick’s face darken and he walked away to talk to Shane and Summer came over to me and we walked back over to our tent area.


	23. Chapter 23

**Daryl’s POV**

Summer and I were sitting at our tent, she was doing her best to keep Harry from crying because he was being fussy and I was whittling some more wood into arrows. We were both absorbed in our own thoughts when I heard someone clear their throat. I looked up and saw Dale. I groaned and stood up to load the new makeshift arrows into my bow.

 

“Ya know, the whole point in me movin’ us up here was to get away from you people,” I said.

 

“It’s gonna take more than that,” Dale said.

  
“Did Carol send you?” I asked and continued to load the arrows.

 

“She’s not the only one that’s concerned about you and your new roll in the group,” he replied.

 

“I don’t need my head shrunk,” I said, “This group’s broken. I’m better off fending for myself and my family.”

 

“Don’t act like you don’t care,” Dale said.

 

“Oh yeah? And why not? Cause I don’t care,” I said.

 

“So you mean to tell me, live or die, you don’t care what happens to Randall?” he asked.

 

“Nope,” I said simply putting on my jacket.

 

“And why not?” he asked, “Stand with me and try to save his life if it doesn’t matter.”

 

“I didn’t peg you for a desparate sommabitch,” I said slinging my crossbow on my back, “I don’t care what happens to him. I just want him the hell away from my family.”

 

“Whether you want to believe it or not your opinion makes a difference,” Dale said.

 

“Look man, ain’t nobody lookin to me for nothin,” I said adjusting my bow and I went to walk away.  


“Carol is,” he said and I could hear him start to follow me, “and I am. And of course Summer is. You have Rick’s ear.”

 

“Rick just looks to Shane,” I said turning around to face him, “and ya know what? Let him.”

 

“You cared about what happened to Sophia,” he said, “Your wife had just given birth and you still went looking for her. You cared what it meant to the group. Torturing people? That isn’t you. You are a decent man. So is Rick. Now Shane, Shane is different.”

 

“Why’s that?” I said readjusting my bow, “Cause he killed Otis?”

 

“Who…who told you that?” Dale asked, alarmed.

 

“He told some bullshit story about how Otis covered him, saved his ass and then he showed up with the dead man’s gun,” I said and shrugged, “Ya know, Rick ain’t stupid. If he didn’t figure that out it’s cause he didn’t wanna. It’s like I said, this group’s broken.”

 

I turned my back on him and walked into the woods to hunt.

 

**Summer’s POV**

I saw Daryl walk off into the woods and I knew that whatever Dale had said to him upset him. I tried to listen in but they were too far off and Harry was crying. Dale walked over to me.

 

“Do you care what happens to Randall? Because apparently your husband doesn’t,” he said, “He is a good man, Summer, and I don’t understand why he can’t accept that the group looks to him for answers just as much as we look to Rick.”

 

“Personally, I don’t think we should kill him, but to be honest if his group rolls through here I have my son to worry about and the last thing I want to do is put him in harm’s way. As far as him not accepting a leadership role there’s something you have to understand Dale, he has spent his entire life just looking out for himself. And then he met me and all of a sudden he had someone else to look out for and then Harry was born and he has someone to protect above everything else. He doesn’t take leadership rolls well, he’s never been one to want to be in charge. He takes up these rolls to protect people on his own accord. He knows that I can fend for myself and that I have always been able to do that, but he chose to take me under his wing anyway. You just have to give him some time. He’s not used to having so many people to count on him when all his life, no one ever did,” I said, “He will come to terms with the fact that people other than me need him and value his opinion and actually care about him, eventually.”

 

“I guess we will just give him some time then,” he said and nodded.

 

I smiled at him and he walked off to rejoin everyone over by the RV. I continued to play with Harry and waited for Daryl to come back. After a few hours he came walking back over to Harry and I who were now seated in front of our small fire. I was singing to Harry one of my favorite songs when I saw Daryl sit down in the chair next to me from the corner of my eye.

 

“Even when the world’s gone to shit your voice still sounds beautiful,” he said.

 

“Thank you,” I said and smiled at him, “Dale came to talk to me after you walked off.”

 

“Does he ever know when to shut his mouth,” he said.

 

“Hear me out, Dar,” I said, “these people, our people, they look to you. They see how you fight for me, for Harry. How you risked your life for Sophia. They can tell that you genuinely care for them. Rick is clearly the leader of this group but at this point he needs a new right hand man because let’s face it, Shane is unstable and unreliable at this point. He’s a loose cannon, who knows what he’s going to do next. At this point I fear that he may be a bigger threat to this group than Randall is. Do I think he deserves to die? No. Do I think he has to? Yes. But that’s just my opinion. I’m just saying, take into consideration what Dale was saying. These people need you maybe just as much as I need you.”

 

“I can’t make any promises because I don’t need to be lookin out for anyone other than you and Harry, but I’ll think about it,” he said, “I’m gonna head to bed.”

 

“I’ll see you in the morning then,” I said.

 

He leaned down and kissed me before going into the tent. I stayed up a little longer and rocked Harry to sleep before going into the tent myself.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summer’s POV**

I woke up the next morning to Harry crying. I rolled over and rubbed my eyes and noticed the tent was open and Daryl wasn’t lying next to me. I went to grab Harry from his makeshift crib and he wasn’t there. I began to panic and ran out the front of the tent. I was relieved when I saw Rick and Daryl sitting in the chairs out front of the tent and Rick feeding Harry.

 

“You ok?” Rick asked me.

 

“I heard Harry cry and looked in his crib and he wasn’t there,” I said, “It scared me. One of you two idiots should have woken me up to tell me you had him.”

 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Rick said.

 

“That’s the second time you’ve scared me Grimes, the first being when you found me, don’t make this a habit,” I said with a laugh and went back into the tent to get dressed.

 

After getting dressed I went back out to see what Rick and Daryl were talking about.

 

“We are going to have a group discussion to decide Randall’s fate,” Rick said handing Harry over to me, “I realized yesterday that it’s not my place to just make decisions that affect everyone. So we will all be meeting in the house in an hour or so to talk everything out.”

 

“I think that’s a good idea,” I said, “he is still a person after all. We should talk about it.”

 

“I’m going to check on Carl, I’ll see you both in the house in an hour?” he asked.

 

“Absolutely,” I said and Rick nodded at us and walked away.

 

Daryl and I spent the better part of the next hour trying to fit Harry into some clothes because everything we had he was quickly growing out of. When we finally got him in to something we made our way over to the house to start this discussion. I wasn’t sure how I felt about deciding someone’s fate but the world was different now. There was no right way to do anything anymore. We had to find a new way to live in this world and I guess this was just one of those things that we needed to do. When we walked into the house everyone was already there standing or seated around the room. I sat down in a chair next to the door and Daryl stood behind me.

 

“I don’t think we should kill him, it’s inhumane. He’s a living being. Have you all lost your humanity?” Dale said.

 

There was murmuring amongst the group trying to decipher if maybe Dale was right.

 

“Couldn’t we just keep him prisoner?” Maggie asked.

 

“It’s just another mouth to feed,” Daryl said.

 

“What if we take him out again and try to leave him somewhere else,” Hershel suggested.

 

“What if they get swarmed? What if they’re ambushed by his people?” Lori said, “We can’t risk losing more people.”

 

“They could also ambush us here if we keep him,” Daryl said, “there’s dangers no matter what.”

 

Then the topic turned to everyone discussing what to do with the body if we did decide to kill Randall.

 

“It’s not like this really matters, his fate has clearly already been decided,” Dale said.

 

“There’s no use talking about this anymore we’re just going round in circles about it,” Daryl said.

 

“I don’t want anything to do with this,” Carol said and walked out.

 

“Please just hear me out. He is an innocent man, why punish him for crimes he hasn’t committed? We should just let him live!” Dale said.

 

“Maybe we should let him live,” Andrea said.

 

Everyone just stayed silent.

 

“You were right,” Dale said putting his hand on Daryl’s shoulder, “this group is broken.”

 

Dale walked out of the house and we all realized that Randall’s fate was sealed. He was going to be put to death and that was going to be the end of it. The rest of us left the house and went all of our separate ways.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

A few hours after the group discussion Rick came over to me at our tent.

 

“I need you to help me and Shane move Randall for his execution,” he said.

 

I nodded and followed him over to the barn. We unlocked the door and went to unchain him. I pushed him to his knees and Rick asked him if he had any last words. Randall started pleading for his life like he had been doing for the past few days.

 

“Do it dad,” we heard Carl say from behind us.

 

We all turned around to see him standing in the doorway of the barn.

 

“Chain him back up,” Rick told us and walked over to Carl.

 

Shane and I locked him in his chains again and exited the barn and padlocked it shut and went to our tents. A few hours later Rick called us all to a meeting and told us that we were going to keep Randall prisoner. We all looked around to find Dale and noticed he was missing. Summer suggested we go find him to tell him what he would consider good news when we heard screaming. We all took off at a run toward the sound and saw Dale down on the ground. There was a walker on top of him ripping him apart. I ran forward and tackled the walker off of Dale and killed it. I called for the others.

 

“It’s Dale!” I shouted and everyone was closing in and I turned to Dale, “hang on, man.”

 

“HERSHEL! WE NEED HERSHEL!” Rick screamed as he approached us.

 

Hershel came up not long after.

 

“We can’t move him,” Hershel said, “he’s ripped wide open, we will do more harm than good.”

 

“We need to do something! He’s suffering!” Andrea shouted.

 

We all looked at each other and realized what had to be done. Rick picked up his gun and pointed it at Dale. I could see the look on Rick’s face and I knew he couldn’t do it. I looked at Summer, who had tears in her eyes, and she nodded. I took the gun from Rick and held it to Dales head.

 

“Sorry brother,” I said and pulled the trigger.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summer’s POV**

Early the next morning we all buried Dale and held a small funeral service. We were all in tears through all of it. It was just too much to bear. When the funeral was over Daryl went with T-Dog, Shane, and Andrea to make sure the rest of the fences around the property weren’t breached and I went to help everyone move everything into the house because it was getting colder and Hershel felt bad that he hadn’t asked us to move into the house sooner. I was moving tubs of clothing inside when Hershel pulled me aside.

 

“Summer can I talk to you for a minute,” Hershel said as I was putting a tub down on the living room floor.

 

“Sure, what’s up?” I asked.

 

“I want you and Daryl to take the spare room,” he said, “sleeping on the floor is no place for new parents and a newborn.”

 

“Are you sure, Hershel? This is your house I don’t want to impose,” I said.

 

“Summer,” he said and smiled, “you aren’t imposing at all. I’m offering and to be honest I won’t take no for an answer.”

 

“Thank you, Hershel,” I said, “I really appreciate it.”

 

He showed me where the spare room was and I began to move all of mine and Daryl’s things into it. I was getting another bad feeling, much like I did at the CDC and thought it was best to keep some emergency bags packed. Carol brought Harry in to me and I laid him in his crib and began to unpack and repack three emergency bags. I made sure all of Daryl’s essentials were packed in one, all of mine in another, and all the bottles, formula and clothes for Harry in the third. I just figured it would be best to make sure we had everything we needed just incase something went wrong. About and hour later Daryl came into the bedroom.

 

“What are you doing in here?” he asked.

 

“Hershel gave us this room because of the baby,” I said and smiled at him, “He said new parents shouldn’t be sleeping on the floor.”

 

“I’ll be sure to thank him for that,” he said, “I just came in to check on you. I’m gonna head out there to put supplies in the truck with T for Rick and Shane to drive Randall off.”

 

“Ok, I’ll see you in a few,” I said and kissed him before he walked out.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

T-Dog and I finished getting all the supplies into the bed of the pickup truck and T said he was going to get Randall to load him in. I finished up everything and was about to go look for Rick and Shane to tell him we were almost ready when T came running back over to the truck. At this point Summer, Lori and Carol came outside.

 

“Randall is missing,” T said, “I went into the barn to get him, he’s gone.”

 

Everyone started panicking and began to frantically look for him. Just then Shane came running up to the group his face bloody.

 

“I went to get Randall out of the barn, he snuck up behind me, knocked me out and took my gun,” Shane said breathing heavily.

 

“Alright, everyone get back inside, we don’t know where he could be,” Rick said, “Daryl, Glenn I need you two to come with me and Shane. We’re going into the woods to look for him.”

 

Summer came over to me and squeezed my hand before going inside. I grabbed my bow from the back of the truck and followed them all into the woods. Once we were inside Rick told me and Glenn to go in the opposite direction of them to cover more ground. It was getting dark and we weren’t getting anywhere. I finally noticed two sets of tracks and I pointed them out to Glenn.

 

“This didn’t go down the way Shane said,” I said.

 

“What do you mean?” Glenn asked.

 

“Look at these tracks,” I said, “they’re right behind each other practically on top of each other. One of them was leading the other and by the looks of the tracks Shane was the one pushing Randall forward.”

 

“Are you sure?” Glenn asked.

 

“Tracks don’t lie man,” I said and we continued our search for Randall.

 

The sun finally went down and I was about to suggest heading back and finding Rick and Shane when we were attacked by a walker. It jumped me and I tried to fight it off. When I finally got it off Glenn took it out. When we looked at the walkers face we noticed something familiar about it.

 

“It’s Randall,” I said and began checking him for bites and scratches, “he wasn’t bit or scratched.”

 

“That we can see,” Glenn said.

 

“No, this poor bastard died of a broken neck,” I said pointing out the bruises that were appearing around his neck.

 

“What does that mean? How did he turn?” Glenn asked and I shrugged.

 

“Lets get back, maybe Shane and Rick realized they couldn’t find him,” I said and we walked back to the farm.

 

We walked into the house and Summer immediately ran over to me.

 

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” she asked.

 

“I’m fine, don’t worry,” I said.

 

“I’m sorry, bad feelings,” she replied.

 

I knew she got bad gut feelings a lot but with the world the way it was now I wasn’t sure if there could be any validity to them. Every day I woke up with a bad gut feeling.

 

“We have to tell you guys about Randall,” Glenn said and looked at me.

 

“We found him,” I said, “as a walker. Glenn took him down but when we looked at the body he wasn’t bit or scratched. His neck was broke.”

 

The group started to murmur and Lori came over to me.

 

“Daryl I’m sorry to ask but Rick and Shane aren’t back yet,” she said.

 

“I’m on it,” I said, “Glenn.”

 

He nodded and we exited the house, everyone else following close behind. As soon as we got on the porch it was apparent that Summer’s bad gut feeling had some merit this time. In the distance was a huge walker herd and it was approaching fast.

 

“I can’t find Carl,” Lori said frantically coming back out on the porch.

 

“I’ll help,” Summer said and turned to me, “find Rick.”

 

I didn’t question her and I knew that from what I said about Randall she didn’t want me to find Shane. The conversation we had a few days earlier was starting to make sense. Shane was not to be trusted. She ran back into the house with Lori and I grabbed a gun and readjusted my bow before trying to find a way around the house to look for Rick.

 

**Summer’s POV**

I ran inside calling for Carl. I made my way into the room Hershel had given Daryl and I and threw all three emergency bags on my bag and fastened Harry into the makeshift baby carrier on my chest. I called for Carl again and found Lori in the house she was about to cry.

 

“Lets check outside,” I said to her and she nodded.

 

We walked outside and the walkers had taken over. I couldn’t see Daryl anywhere and I was beginning to panic. Lori looked absolutely distressed. She started screaming for Carl again.

 

“We can’t find him,” Beth said looking at Patricia.

 

The herd was closing in on the house and Hershel was making his way down the steps firing shots.

 

“Maybe he’s with Rick,” I said, “Rick probably saw the herd and went to get Carl.”

 

I tried not to think of the fact that Daryl was literally nowhere in sight. Just then T-Dog pulled up in a pickup truck and Andrea got out of the passenger side door.

“You guys have to get out of here,” Andrea said.

 

“No! Not without my son!” Lori screamed.

 

“Lori we have to go, we have to get out of here, he’s more than likely with Rick, it’s not safe here,” I said.

 

“What about Daryl?” she asked me and tears welled up in my eyes.

 

“He will be fine,” I said, “he’s a survivor. He always has been.”

 

Lori nodded and Beth and Patricia followed us over to the truck. As we were approaching it a walker grabbed Patricia and bit into her arm. She started screaming and Beth started crying. We yanked Beth off of Patricia and managed to all fit in the cab of the truck with T-Dog. T pulled off of the farm and headed out to the road.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

I couldn’t find Rick or Carl so my next move was to try and meet up with Summer. I circled the farm on my bike at least ten times and she was nowhere in sight. I was beginning to have the worlds biggest anxiety attack. I resolved that she probably made it out with someone else and started to leave the farm when I saw a figure running toward me. It was Carol.

 

“Come on! I don’t got all day!” I shouted to her and she climbed on the back of the bike.

 

I pulled on to the dirt road and headed off the farm and even though I was fighting them off the tears started to fall. I had worked so hard to keep her safe and now she was gone and I had no idea what happened to her. I couldn’t stay at the farm and dig through bodies I would be a dead man. I pulled onto the road and headed in the direction of the highway where we had set up supplies for Sophia. I figured that maybe if everyone was to meet up it would be there.

 

**Summer’s POV**

“We have to go in the other direction!” Lori yelled at T-Dog.

 

“Hell no! We’re heading for the coast,” T-Dog said, “east. That’s where it’s supposed to be safe.”

 

I couldn’t even form words. The second we climbed into the car I started crying and I hadn’t stopped since.

 

“If anyone got out of there alive they would have headed to the spot we set up for Sophia! We need to get back to our people!” Lori yelled.

 

“No!” T-Dog said.

 

“Fine, then we are getting out,” Lori said and opened the door.

 

“Woah, woah, woah! Calm down and shut the damn door,” T-Dog said and pulled a u-turn and headed back toward the highway.

 

We pulled up to the highway and I saw Daryl standing there with Carol, Rick, Hershel, Carl, Glenn and Maggie. We all practically forced each other out of the car and I ran full speed at Daryl. He pulled me into a hug being careful not to crush Harry.

 

“Are you ok? Did you get bit? Is Harry ok?” He asked his voice shaking.

 

“We’re ok, we’re both fine,” I said, “are you ok?”  


“I’m fine, I promise,” he said and kissed me.

 

“Where is everyone else?” Daryl asked.

 

“We’re all that made it,” Rick said, “How did you all find each other?”

 

“I saw tail lights zig-zaggin down the highway and figured the driver must be Asian, got here and it was Glenn,” Daryl said with a laugh.

 

His attempt to lighten the mood worked and everyone seemed to calm down for a minute.

 

“We need to get out of here,” Rick said, “It’s not safe. The herd could head this way.”

 

“We need to go back for Andrea,” Daryl said.

 

“No, we can’t,” Rick said, “she’s probably gone. Everyone seemed to know to meet here if she’s not here she’s gone.”

 

Everyone agreed with Rick about leaving and I climbed on the back of the bike with Daryl, making sure Harry could breathe while being sandwiched safely between us, and everyone else piled into the cars and we headed out. Eventually we all stopped because we ran out of gas. Rick told us to set up camp here for the night and we would all go out and find gas and supplies in the morning.

 

“What if a herd comes through?” Beth asked.

 

“Rick there’s something you need to know about Randall,” Daryl said, “He wasn’t bit. His neck was broke and he still turned.”

 

“How can that happen?” Beth asked.

 

“Shane killed Randall, just like he always wanted to,” Daryl said.

 

“What the hell happened?” Lori asked.

 

The look on Rick’s face showed that he was fighting an inner battle. There was something he hadn’t told us and he was fighting himself on whether or not he should tell us.

 

“What’s going on, Rick?” I asked.

 

“We’re all infected,” Rick said simply and we all stopped and looked at him, horror on our faces.

 

“What?” Daryl said.

 

“At the CDC, Jenner told me,” Rick said, “whatever it is we all carry it.”

 

Everyone looked around both horrified and disgusted.

 

“You’re just thinking of telling us now?!” I shouted, “Why wouldn’t you have said something earlier!? What if Harry was a still born, Rick?! He could have killed me, he could have killed Hershel!”

 

“But he wasn’t!” Rick shouted back, “If I thought that would have been a threat to you I would have said something! I didn’t know for sure! It wouldn’t have made a difference if I told you.”

 

“Like hell it wouldn’t have!” I shouted back.

 

“That wasn’t your call! When I found out about the walkers in the barn I told for the good of everyone!” Glenn said.

 

“Well I thought it best if everyone didn’t know,” Rick said, he was getting heated.

 

Rick turned and walked off and Lori went to follow him. I turned to Daryl with a confused and pleading look in my eyes and he put his arm around my shoulder and we walked off in the other direction.

 

“We’re not safe with him,” I said, “how could he keep something like that from us!? We don’t need him anymore Daryl, he’s just going to pull us down.”

 

“Nah, Rick’s done alright by us,” he said, “he saved your life on your way to Atlanta and brought you to me. He found us help when you were in labor. He’s done more than alright by us.”

 

I thought about what he said and maybe he was right. We were indebted to Rick whether either of us liked it or not. We rejoined the rest of the group and began to set up our camp. Daryl went out to collect some firewood and I sat around the dug out fire pit with Maggie and Glenn. We got a fire started and all sat around it in silence not sure of what to say about anything anymore. Daryl put some more wood on the fire and sat down behind me pulling my head against his chest so I was seated between his legs rocking Harry. Everyone was having side conversations when we heard a rustling in the woods.

 

“What was that?” Beth asked and sat up from her spot resting on Hershel’s leg.

 

“Could be anything a raccoon, some other animal,” Daryl said.

 

“A walker,” Glenn pointed out.

 

“Which direction did it come from?” I asked.

 

“Same direction we came,” Beth said.

 

“I’m not taking anymore chances, we need to move now,” Maggie said, “what if another herd rolls through.”

 

“No,” Rick said, “no one is going anywhere.”

 

“Do something!” Carol said.

 

“I am doing something!” Rick snapped back, “I’m keeping this group together! Alive! I have been doing that all along! I didn’t ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people for Christ sake!”

 

We all stared at him in shock.

 

“You saw how he was like,” he said, “how he pushed me. How he was constantly compromising and threatening us. He staged the entire Randall thing. He led me out there to put a bullet in my back! He gave me no choice! He was my friend but in the end he came after me! My hands are clean!”

 

After a few moments of silence with everyone being in shock, Rick continued.

 

“Ya know, maybe you people are better off without me,” he said, “go ahead! I say there’s a place for us, but maybe…maybe it’s just another pipe dream and maybe I’m just fooling myself again but ya know why don’t you go and find out for yourselves! While you’re at it send me a postcard! If ya wanna leave, go ahead, there’s the door. If you think you’re better off let’s see how far you get. No takers? Fine, but get one thing straight, if you stay this isn’t a democracy anymore.”

 

No one said a single word to challenge him and he walked off. Daryl sat back down behind me and I rested my head against his chest once more. Harry had begun to whimper, all the yelling upset him and I went back to rocking him to sleep. I tried my best to calm myself down but I was more scared than ever.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summer’s POV**

It had been eight months since we lost the farm and Lori was about to pop. Harry was almost a year old and we were all constantly on the move. Luckily we hadn’t lost anyone else since leaving the farm but that’s not saying we didn’t have a lot of close encounters, because we did. Rick had taken his leadership role much more seriously than I had ever seen him take it before. He used to just make decisions as unbiased as possible and try to do right by everyone and now he was just calling the shots and if you didn’t like it you could leave. I could tell it was taking a toll on Daryl, especially when Rick would bark orders at people and one of those people was me. I didn’t mind pulling my weight with the group, none of us did, because by now we weren’t a group of strangers we were family. I would be just as devastated to lose any member of our group as I would be to lose Daryl. We had been on the run all day looking for somewhere to hole up because sleeping in cars was not doing us much good and I would be lying if I said Harry crying in the middle of the night was not one of the reasons we were constantly in danger and needed somewhere safe to stay. 

 

As we were walking through the woods one day we came across a small house and cleared it and sat down for a minute. I could tell Lori was grateful to be off her feet and frankly so was I. I wasn’t much help taking down walkers because I was always carrying Harry. Daryl offered to take him a few times but I always turned him down because he was a better shot than I was and the group needed him to protect them. There was an unspoken agreement that Daryl had replaced Shane as Rick’s right hand man and he was taking the new role rather well. Daryl came back in the room with an owl that I presumed he shot and Carl came in with a couple of cans of the only thing he could find, dog food. He started to open one of the cans and Rick grabbed it from him and threw it across the room.

 

“We’re not eating that,” he said simply, once again no one argued.

 

Rick looked out the window and noticed there was a huge herd coming through. He signaled for us to leave and we all grabbed our stuff and threw everything into the cars and hit the road once again. After driving for a few miles we all parked and Hershel pulled out and map and set it on the hood of one of the cars. The map was marking the routes of the herds and where we were encountering them. He marked the spot we just left and him and Rick started talking about where to head next and where the herds could possibly meet up and combine into a larger herd. It was starting to seem like no matter where we went there was going to be a huge herd blocking our path. Our hope for finding a safe place was starting to diminish and we were all beginning to think we were going to be on the road forever. That would not be a good option because eventually gas supplies would run out and we would be absolutely screwed.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

While everyone was pouring over the map Rick asked me to go hunt with him. I agreed because that owl I shot earlier was not going to be enough to hold any of us over for the day. The women went off to a stream with T-Dog to collect water and wash our clothes as best they could. We were walking and I was trying to track any animal that I could when Rick tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and he was pointing toward the distance. I swear if I was that kind of person I would have jumped for joy with what I was seeing. Ahead of us no more than a mile away was a prison. From what Rick and I could see the yard was filled with walkers but it looked like there was nothing there we couldn’t handle. Rick looked over at me smiling broadly and I was smiling just as big we turned around and started walking back toward the cars and Rick patted my back and let out a small laugh. We rejoined the group and I jogged over to Summer. Rick called the group together and we told everyone about finding the prison.

 

You could feel the mood in the group change. Everyone was starting to chatter happily and Rick said we should get ready to go and head over there. Everyone seemed to agree and hastily got into the cars to drive over to the prison. We pulled up out front of the gates and there were a few walkers roaming around the outer fence. It seemed like there were no holes in the fence so the walkers inside had to be prisoners and guards. Hopefully the prison had fallen early and there were still some supplies inside that we could use. I saw Rick nod at me from the driver seat of the Hyundai and I climbed off the bike. Summer had taken to giving Harry to Beth for car rides because she didn’t want him on the bike unless absolutely necessary because after the first time he was on the bike he got really sick. Luckily for us on one of our stops we were able to pick up some extra ammo and I found Summer a bow for herself. She nodded to me after she saw Rick’s signal and also climbed off the bike. We both pulled the bows from our back and were taking out the walkers around the fence.

 

“Should we try to get the ones inside?” she asked me.

 

“Nah, I don’t know what Rick’s plan is, I don’t want to go shooting arrows and then not be able to retrieve them,” I replied.

 

“Good call,” she said, “duck.”

 

I crouched down and I felt the breeze of the arrow flying over my head and heard the sickening sound of it piercing the skull of the walker that was behind me. I stood back up and we surveyed the area. We had cleaned it out and began walking to our targets to collect our arrows. Once we returned to the bike I nodded at Rick again and everyone climbed out of the cars.

 

“Nice shooting,” Rick said to Summer, “Daryl said you were a good shot with a bow, but this is the first time I think I’ve seen it.”

 

“Thanks,” she said and blushed.

 

As we all crowded around each other Rick told us the plan. We were going to take the prison yard by nightfall. He started delegating who was to do what in order to get everything done in a quick and safe fashion. He told Summer and I to take one tower and Hershel and Carl to take the other. For what we needed to do Summer and I replaced our crossbows with guns. He then told Maggie, Glenn, and Beth to lead the walkers away from the gates so he could shut it. We made our way up the one tower and began taking out walkers that were advancing on Rick. He ran and shut the inner gate closing off the walkers in the actual prison area from where we were going to make camp for the night.

 

“He did it!” Summer shouted.

 

“Light it up!” I shouted and the four of us began firing off rounds killing as many walkers as we could before we ran out of ammo.

 

We killed most of them and climbed down from the tower to help Rick with the few we missed. Everyone else filed into the yard and I don’t think any of us have seen the group this happy before. At least not for a long time. Carol brought Harry over to Summer and I and everyone went to bring the cars in and we set up camp. As night fell Rick was patrolling the fences and everyone was making dinner from whatever left over food we had. I decided to skip out on dinner and take watch. I climbed on top of one of the prison buses that were turned on their side and kept a look out into the distance.

 

**Summer’s POV**

I noticed Daryl skip out on dinner and go to be a look out while Rick was patrolling the fences for what seemed like the millionth time. Those two needed to take a break from being in charge and just enjoy some food and enjoy the fact that for the first time in months we had somewhere safe and secure to stay.

 

“That’s his third time around, if any part of it was compromised he’d have found it by now,” Hershel said.

 

I put some food in a bowl and brought it over to Daryl. I managed to climb up on the bus without spilling anything.

 

“If I didn’t bring you any you’d never eat,” I said handing him the bowl.

 

“Thanks,” he said, “little Shane over there has quite the appetite.”

 

“Don’t be mean!” I said rubbing my shoulder, “You know how I ate when I was like that.”

 

“You ok?” he asked me.

 

“Running around carrying Harry, it’s taking a toll on me,” I said.

 

He put the bowl down and licked his fingers clean and began to massage my shoulders.

 

“I can take him, ya know,” he said.

 

“Not with the bow you cant,” I said, “and besides you need to be able to help out if we get over run by a herd. Let’s go back, were not gonna be breached tonight and you need some sleep.”

 

“I’ll go down first,” he said and climbed down.

 

He helped me down and we walked back over to the group. Rick finally stopped checking the fences and came over to talk about the next step of the plan. He told us all to get some rest because we were going to take the prison in the morning and that he was going to spend the night standing guard. We all did our best to get some sleep because we were anxious to get started on clearing this place out.


	27. Chapter 27

**Daryl’s POV**

The next morning everyone was more than anxious to get inside the prison. We were all starving and somewhat well rested but we were still constantly on edge. Rick came over and asked me to come inside with him Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog to clear the inside of the prison so we could start moving everyone in. Summer begged to come with us but I wouldn’t let her. She needed to stay here and stay safe. Rick also needed her to watch the perimeter just incase we had any walkers come through. She told me to be careful and I told her we would be and we headed in to the prison.

 

We were approached by walkers in every direction and we were all killing as many of them as we could. We finally felt like we were done and then a bunch of walkers in riot gear came around the corner. We all looked around at each other unsure of how to kill them with the riot gear on. Maggie charged at one of them and lifted the helmet and jammed her knife up the walker’s throat. It dropped to the ground and Maggie yelled at us to go under the helmet. Within a few minutes we had successfully cleared the prison yard. As we were standing there and surveying the damage I noticed a few of the walkers were civilians.

 

“The inside could be over run by walkers from the outside,” T-Dog said, “there could be a breach somewhere else.”

 

“That doesn’t matter,” Rick said, “we have to push in.”

 

We all pushed our way inside the prison and found a somewhat empty cell block. We killed some of the walkers outside the block and the cell block was locked. Rick ran up the stair case to the office to try and find a set of keys. As he was running back down the stairs he tossed me a set of keys and used the set he had to unlock the cell block. We sent Glenn, Maggie, and T-Dog back out to get everyone else and to also clear anything we might have missed on our way in. Rick and I took out all the walkers in the cells and dragged the bodies outside. When we were done everyone made their way inside the block and I could see the look of relief on everyone’s faces.

 

“Alright everyone pick your cells,” Rick called out, “get some rest. We’re gonna go look for an infirmary and cafeteria in the morning.”

 

“I ain’t sleepin in no cage, I’ll take the perch,” I said and walked up the stairs to the second floor of the block.

 

Summer, carrying Harry, followed me up the stairs and took a cell right next to the catwalk so she could be near me. I helped Summer and the baby settle into one of the cells and grabbed a mattress for myself and set it up outside the cell. The next morning Rick woke me up to let me know we were ready to go. I followed him down the stairs and Maggie, Glenn, T-Dog, and Hershel were waiting for us to get going. I wanted to say goodbye to Summer but I knew we didn’t have much time and she needed her sleep.

 

We headed out of the block and down some corridors to try and find the infirmary and cafeteria. We turned a corner and were met with a huge wall of walkers. Rick shouted for us to turn back and we all start running. Once we were in a safer area we noticed Glenn and Maggie weren’t with us. We went back to try and find them. We couldn’t see them anywhere and the next thing I knew we were hearing Hershel scream. We ran in the direction of the sound and noticed he had been bit in the leg. Rick stabbed the walker that bit him in the head and I covered them as we made our way to the cafeteria. We found it and Rick laid Hershel on the ground. I sealed the door and T-Dog went to block it while I went to help Rick with Hershel. Rick took off his belt and tied a tourniquet right above the bite.

 

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked him.

 

“We need to amputate his let to stop the infection,” Rick said calmly grabbing his axe.

 

“Are you fucking serious?!” I said, “What if he dies of blood loss or infection!?”

 

“Just shut up Daryl,” Rick said, “this is what needs to be done.”

 

“He’s right,” Hershel said, “he needs to take it off.”

 

I looked at the two of them like they were crazy and shrugged my shoulders and decided to keep watch. I heard the sound of the axe hacking through Hershel’s leg and I heard Hershel screaming and I wanted to be sick. Rick shouted that he’s bleeding out and we needed to find something to stop the bleeding. Glenn ripped off his shirt and handed it to Rick. Rick tied it around the stump as best he could and I looked around the perimeter one more time and noticed a couple prisoners staring at us from the opposite side of the prison.

 

“Rick, duck,” I said and adjusted my bow and aimed it at them.

 

I stared the prisoners down and Rick finally noticed what my concern was. Glenn noticed too but he didn’t care. He ran over to the area near them and grabbed a food cart dumping everything off of it in the process. He wheeled the cart over to us and him and Rick put Hershel on the food cart and wheeled him out of the cafeteria and I followed them out with my bow still trained on the prisoners. The last thing I wanted was these bastards to follow us. Who knew what they were capable of and we had women and children to worry about. I took down as many walkers as I could while leading them back to the cell block safely. Once we got to the cell block I noticed the prisoners were right behind us. Glenn and Rick got Hershel on a cot and Carol immediately took over and went into doctor mode. I still stood outside of the cell block entrance with my bow trained on the prisoners. I could see Summer coming down the stairs carrying Harry out of the corner of my eye.

 

“Summer stay back,” I spat at her.

 

“What? Why?” she asked.

 

“Just get the hell up the stairs and back in the cell,” I said.

 

I could tell she looked hurt but as she turned to go up the stairs and I saw her notice the prisoners and immediately she ran up the stairs. Hearing my conversation with Summer caused Rick and T-Dog to join me outside of the block.

 

“How the hell did you get in here?” one of the prisoners asked.

 

“We’re the ones who are asking questions now,” I said not lowering my bow.

 

Rick started explaining to them what the world was like outside and then told him to follow us. We lead them outside to the prison yard and showed them all the bodies of the walkers we had killed the day before. They looked disgusted and I’m pretty sure one of them was about to vomit. After they soaked everything in Rick struck a deal with them. We would help them clear out one cell block in exchange for half of the food in the cafeteria. The prisoners agreed to the deal and we headed back inside to the cafeteria to get some of the food.

 

**Summer’s POV**

 

After Daryl, Rick, and T-Dog left with the prisoners I went back down the stairs to check on Hershel. I helped Carol and Lori with his leg and did my best to keep Hershel calm. Carol said we needed more bandages and something to clean the wound to keep it from getting infected. None of us even knew where to begin to find the infirmary. A few minutes later Rick and T-Dog came in with a bunch of food and Rick handed me his cuffs.

 

“Handcuff him to the bed,” Rick said to me, “just as a precaution.”

 

I nodded and apologized to Hershel, who was now passed out, as I cuffed him to the bedpost. It felt like we were just sitting there for hours when Maggie asked for a minute alone with Hershel. We all obliged and I went back upstairs to check on Harry. A few minutes later I heard Maggie calling out for her father and I ran down the stairs. He had stopped breathing. I quickly handed Harry to Lori and immediately preformed CPR on Hershel. He sat up with a huge breath and grabbed my shoulders. He then let go of me and fell back onto the bed. It was clear as day that we all thought he had turned but once his head hit the pillow his breathing was steady and he looked up at me and smiled slightly before falling asleep. I took Harry back from Lori and went up to my cell. It was just too startled from everything that had just happened.


	28. Chapter 28

**Daryl’s POV**

After Rick and T-Dog came back from dropping off the food rations we went to find a cell block to clear out. We came across a huge herd of walkers and we told the prisoners what to do. They all charged like madmen at the walker herd and started wailing on them. I looked over at Rick and he gave me the same look back. We didn’t trust these people.

 

“It’s gotta be the brain, not the stomach, not the heart. The brain,” I shouted over the commotion.

 

We went and helped the prisoners take out the entire herd of walkers and one of the prisoners got bit. The most violent prisoner, who I was informed was named Tomas, walked over to the one who was bit and viciously slaughtered him by bashing his head in. I gave Rick another look and we let the prisoners go ahead of us.

 

“I don’t know how I feel about this, that guy is clearly not sane,” I said, “My wife and son are in that cell block and so are yours. You see the look on his face?”

 

“He makes one move,” Rick said.

 

“Just give me the signal,” I said.

 

We reached the cafeteria again and Rick told Tomas to open one of the doors. He opened both of them and we were flooded with walkers. We killed them most of them and Tomas threw a walker at Rick. I ripped the walker off of him and stabbed it through the head. Rick stood up facing Tomas and took his axe and buried it deep in his skull. One of the other prisoners ran off and Rick chased after him. I told the other two, Oscar and Axel, to get down on their knees and pointed my bow at Oscar while T-Dog held his gun to Axel’s head.

 

“We’re not affiliated with them I swear,” Axel said.

 

“Just stop talking,” Oscar told him.

 

Rick rejoined us and we led Oscar and Axel to a cell block and helped them clear it out and Rick gave them clear instructions that they were not allowed to enter our cell block and we would leave them alone. They agreed and we headed back to our block. As we walked back in the first thing we did was check on Hershel.

 

“He stopped breathing, Summer saved him,” Carl said.

 

“It’s true,” Glenn added.

 

“Still no fever,” Lori chimed in.

 

“Where is she?” I asked.

 

“In her cell,” Glenn replied.

 

I walked up the stairs and entered the cell. Summer explained to me what happened with Hershel after I brought her downstairs to see him since he was awake. We went back up to the cell and she had the look on her face like she wanted to have a serious discussion.

 

“I want you back in the cell,” she said to me sitting on the mattress, “you need to stop being in protection mode. I would feel safer with you inside the cell not just sleeping outside. I feel like you don’t want to be around me with you sleeping out there. I feel like you’re distancing yourself from me and Harry and I don’t like it at all. So get your ass in this cell and sleep next to me.”

 

“You’re right,” I said, “and I’m sorry that I’ve been acting like that but I just want to make sure that you’re safe. I feel like I have to be alert and ready at all times incase something were to happen. I will not let anything happen to you.”

 

“And you can do all of those things from right next to me,” she said.

 

I agreed with her and dragged my mattress inside the cell and made it into a makeshift bed for Harry. Summer laid Harry down on the mattress and I undressed and climbed into bed with her. She laid her head on my chest and I pulled her close to me.

 

“What happened to those prisoners?” she asked me.

 

“Two of them are in a cell block past the cafeteria,” I said, “Rick killed one of them and the other one ran off. Rick went after him but we’re not sure where he went. He ran outside so we think he ditched the place.”

 

“He’s still out there?” she asked concerned.

  
“He’s not gonna come in through here and if he does I’ll be ready,” I said and readjusted my bow next to the bed.

 

“Good,” she said and kissed me before cuddling closer to me to fall asleep.

 

The next morning we were all up and ready to start moving the cars into the prison and set up some sort of barriers. Summer left Harry with Carol and Beth and we went outside to the prison yard.

 

“Where are Glenn and Maggie?” Summer asked, “We could use some help.”

 

“In the guard tower,” I said, “They’ve been up there since last night.”

 

I called for them to come down and they joined us and the prisoners came out from their cell block. Me, Summer, Rick, and T-Dog walked over to them and the two of them pleaded with us to join our group. Rick told them to hold on and we walked away from them to discuss what to do.

 

“Let them stay with us, we need the man power,” T-Dog said.

 

“We should just leave them where they are,” Summer said.

 

“I grew up with guys like them,” I said, “they’re degenerates not psychos. I could just as easily be in there with them then out here with you guys.”

 

“So you agree with me?” T-Dog asked.

 

“Hell no! My wife and son sleep in there, I ain’t lettin them anywhere near us,” I said.

 

Summer smiled at me and Rick went over to the prisoners to tell them what the decision was and we decided to give them food for a few weeks. We continued to clear our the yard and I went with the guys to pile the bodies and burn them. Lori, Carl, Beth, and Carol brought the baby out and Hershel since he was doing fine and was trying to walk on crutches. We were all more than happy to see Hershel up and about. It was definitely something that brought everyone’s spirits up.

 

We continued to pile the bodies when the yard was overrun with walkers. Rick and I were at the outer fence cleaning up the bodies and we both started running back toward the inner yard screaming for Summer and Lori. As we were charging up to the yard I saw Summer go into one of the cages at the top of a stair case with Hershel, Beth, and the baby and lock them in from both sides. Maggie ran inside with Lori and Carl. As we approached Summer Rick asked her if she saw anything. She told us that T-Dog was bit and that Maggie took Lori and Carl inside. Out of nowhere an alarm started blaring. Harry immediately started to cry and Summer tried her best to soothe him. I ran off with Rick to try and find the prisoners to see if we could figure out how to shut this alarm off.

 

We met up with Glenn and the prisoners and headed into the prison to try and find the generator room. Rick started frantically looking for Lori and Carl and he told the rest of us that we all need to split up to find the generator room. He told us the first group to the generators has to shut them off. We split up and I made it to the generator room first closely followed by Rick and Oscar. As we entered the room I tried my best to keep the door shut from the walker herd that followed us here. We noticed that the escaped prisoner was also in the generator room. He tried to kill Rick and in a panic to try and save rick I slipped and let the door open. I killed the few walkers that made it through and slammed the door shut.

 

In all the confusion Rick dropped his gun and the prisoner was advancing on him. Oscar picked up Rick’s gun and I pointed my bow at him not sure of what he was going to do next. Oscar shot the other prisoner in the head and I let my guard down. He handed Rick his gun back and we managed to shut the generator off. The three of us left the generator room and ran into Glenn and Axel on our way back to the block. As we walked through we came across some walkers eating T-Dog and I felt my stomach twist. We killed the walkers and as we were leaving I saw Carol’s scarf on the ground. I picked it up and we walked outside. We reached Summer, Beth, and Hershel and let them out of the cage and they came down into the yard with us. I pulled Summer close to me and Rick was going on about needing to go find Carl and Lori. At that minute Maggie came out of the building with Carl and she was carrying a newborn. She was covered in blood and the baby was wrapped in her jacket. Rick looked at Maggie and she shook her head with tears in her eyes. Rick started crying and dropped to the ground in tears. I pulled Summer and Harry in closer to me. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Rick was going through. I felt horrible for him. I don’t even think I would be able to go on if I had lost Summer. It was one thing when I wasn’t sure if she was alive or not, it would have been a completely different situation if I had known for sure that she was gone. I could feel Summer shaking next to me and I knew she had started to cry and when she noticed that I was holding Carol’s scarf she started crying even harder. I let go of her and walked over to Rick. I put my hand on his shoulder and he shrugged me off. Maggie walked over to Hershel and handed him the baby so he could check it out and make sure it was ok. Rick pushed past me, grabbed an axe, and ran into the building. We all called after him but he wasn’t listening to us. He was on a mission, and to be honest if I was in the same situation I would do the same thing.


	29. Chapter 29

**Daryl’s POV**

Carl was standing next to Hershel while he was checking out the baby and everything seemed to be alright but we all knew we needed to get things for the baby and none of us knew if we should go after Rick or not.

 

“Do we have anything the baby can eat? We don’t have any of Harry’s formula left he’s been on solid food for months,” I said, “we’re gonna need to go on a run.”

 

“I’ll go with you,” Maggie said.

 

“Sum, kid just lost his mom and his dad’s not doin’ to hot,” I said turning to her.

 

“I’m already on it,” she said and kissed me, “be safe.”

 

“I will,” I said and Summer walked over to Carl and knelt down in front of him.

 

He looked like he was about to cry and Summer pulled him into a hug. I motioned for Maggie to follow me and we got on my bike and headed into the nearest town. We found a daycare center and cleared it before starting to stock pile whatever we could find in our bags. I found some diapers, formula, bottles, clothes and toys for the newborn.

 

“Do you need anything for Harry while we’re here?” Maggie called to me.

 

“I grabbed him some toys, but if you can find any clothes that would be great cause his stuff is way to small for him, any baby food would be good too,” I called back and grabbed some more formula cans.

 

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Maggie called back.

 

Once we filled our bags with as much as we could hold we climbed back onto the bike and headed back to the prison. We finally pulled up to the prison well after night fall and practically ran inside knowing that the baby would need to eat now. Once we were inside Maggie rushed to make a bottle and I asked Hershel if I could hold the baby who was screaming. Once I started rocking her she quieted down. Beth handed me the bottle and I started to feed her.

 

“She got a name yet?” I asked.

 

“No, I was thinking maybe Amy, Andrea, Jacqui, Carol, Patricia, Sophia, or Lori I don’t know,” Carl said and walked over to Summer and wrapped his arms around her waist.

 

She put her arm around his shoulder as he started to cry silently.

 

“You like that lil’ ass kicker,” I said to the baby, “how about that? Lil’ ass kicker.”

 

Everyone laughed a little in agreement.

 

“You like that sweetheart,” I said to the baby again as she looked up at me.

 

I looked over at Summer who was holding a sleeping Harry and comforting a crying Carl and I smiled at her. She smiled back at me and I went to burp the baby. All of us were wondering where Rick was but no one wanted to mention it.

 

The next morning during breakfast I wanted to bring up the fact that Rick still wasn’t back but Carl seemed to be getting back to his old self and I didn’t want to ruin that for him. While we were eating Rick came barging into the cell block and ruffled Carl’s hair.

 

“Does everyone have a gun and a knife?” Rick asked me.

 

“Yeah but we’re low on ammo,” I replied and Rick nodded.

 

“Me, Maggie and Summer were planning on going on a run this afternoon to get some supplies and ammo,” Glenn said and Rick nodded again and walked off.

 

After breakfast Summer went to get ready to go on the run with Maggie and Glenn and I took Carl with me to clear out some more areas of the prison and to make sure that there were no more walkers left running around from the herd that came through.  We were walking in silence for a while and I was trying to figure out how to comfort him.

 

“Ya know when I was a little younger than you I lost my mom,” I said, “she fell asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand and burned the house down. I was playing with some kids in the neighborhood and they all had bikes and I didn’t and we saw the smoke and they all sped off over there and I ran as fast as I could and when we got there I noticed it was my house that was the one that was on fire.”

 

“I had to shoot my mom,” Carl replied, “she begged me to. She knew she was going to bleed out and die from having the baby and I didn’t think I could do it, but I knew I didn’t want someone else to do it. I couldn’t have Maggie do it or my dad, it had to be me.”

 

I just nodded at what he said not understanding how he was so collected about this whole thing, but maybe that’s just how he was dealing with what he had to do.

 

“I’m sorry about your mom,” Carl finally said after a few minutes of silence.

 

“I’m sorry about yours too,” I said.

 

“You’re gonna be a great dad when Harry gets older, ya know?” Carl said.

 

“Thanks kid,” I said with a laugh ruffling his hair.

 

We continued to press on through the prison because I wanted to say goodbye to Summer before they left on their run.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summer’s POV**

The three of us pulled up to a giant store, it was probably a Walmart or something but it was hard to tell at this point because the sign had fallen off. Glenn grabbed the bolt cutters from the trunk and cut the chains off the door and went to open it. A huge group of bats flew out and startled us. We waited for them to clear out and walked into the store.

 

“Glenn get that duck!” Maggie said.

 

“What?” Glenn asked.

 

“Get that duck!” Maggie said again.

 

“You can’t be serious,” Glenn said.

 

“A kid growing up in a prison could use some toys,” Maggie said.

 

“Amen to that,” I said with a laugh.

 

The three of us piled as much food and clothing for everyone into baskets and grabbed almost all of the formula off the shelves and we brought the baskets back to the truck.

 

“And where is it you good people callin’ home?” I heard a familiar voice say behind us.

 

“Merle?!” I said turning around.

 

“Well, well, well, look who we have here!” Merle said.

 

“You made it,” Glenn said looking at Merle both terrified and dumbfounded.

 

“You tell me is my brother alive?” Merle said ignoring Glenn’s comment.

 

“Yes,” Glenn replied.

 

“How about you bring me to him and I tell ya what, I’ll call it even about everything in Atlanta,” he said.

 

“You stay here and we will bring him to you,” Glenn said trying to negotiate with him, something I knew was never an option with Merle.

 

Merle shattered the back window of the truck and grabbed Maggie pointing a gun to her head. He yelled at us to get in the car and told Glenn to drive. Glenn tried to protest but Merle pulled the hammer back on the gun and Glenn climbed in the driver’s seat while I climbed in the back. Merle shoved Maggie in the back seat next to me and climbed in the front seat next to Glenn and started to direct him.

 

“So, how’s my little nephew doin’, Sum?” Merle asked me.

 

“Oh he’s just fine. Looks just like his daddy. Too bad for you, you’re never gonna get ta meet him,” I said through gritted teeth.

 

“Still bein’ feisty with me after all these years, Sum?” he said.

 

“Always, dickwad,” I replied.

 

He just laughed and went back to giving Glenn directions with the gun pressed firmly against Glenn’s temple.

 

A few miles later we pulled over and were met with a group of men. Next thing I knew bags were being shoved over our heads and we were shoved into a vehicle. What felt like hours later we stopped and were being pulled out of the vehicle. I was lead somewhere and pushed into a chair. I felt my hands being tied to the arms and my legs being tied to the legs of the chair and the bag was pulled off my head. I was alone in a room and the man that tied me here closed the door as he exited the room. I wanted to scream but I knew it would do no good. I started crying, I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t want this to be the way I died. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be getting out of here. My heart was racing. I didn’t even get to tell Daryl goodbye or I love him. I was starting to panic and hyperventilate. Eventually I heard voices outside and I calmed myself down enough to try and hear what they were saying. Eventually I heard Merle’s voice right outside the door.

 

“Do what you want with those two, but don’t you lay a finger on the blonde one. That’s my sister-in-law and so help me God if you touch her you will have hell to pay,” I heard him say.

 

That was the first time in my life that I was actually grateful for Merle being in my life. I never thought he actually cared. But for all I knew he didn’t care about me and he was just doing this for Daryl’s sake.

 

“How ya gonna get her to talk then,” I heard another voice say.

 

“I know her, Martinez,” I heard him say, “If she hears what’s happeing to the other two, she’ll cave. That’s how she is.”

 

“I only take orders from the Governor,” another voice said, “not his lackeys.”

 

The man who I’m assuming was the one talking came storming into the room and advanced toward me. I tried to lift my arms, momentarily forgetting they were tied down, and couldn’t break them free of the ropes. The man was standing in my face just staring at me.

 

“You’re a pretty one, aren’t ya,” he said and laughed.

 

I spit in his face and this clearly pissed him off and I instantly regretted doing it, but my temper was rising. He lifted his fist and punched me square in the jaw. Merle rushed into the room and ripped the guy off of me but he fought Merle off throwing him to the floor and got back up and punched me again. He hit me a few more times and Merle finally got him off of me and slammed the knife he had attached to his hand through the guys skull. The man fell to the floor with a thud.

 

“I told ya’ll not ta touch her!” Merle shouted, “Anyone gonna try a stunt like that again!?”

 

Everyone stared at him in shock and walked away from the doorway to the room.

 

“You alright, sugar tits?” he asked and I knew he was using the crude nickname he had for me to try and get me to laugh or something.

 

I just started crying. He lifted my chin and looked at me.

 

“When your brother finds out,” I said.

 

“I know,” Merle replied.

 

He got up and walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. As soon as the door shut I started crying again. I heard Glenn getting slammed around and screaming and I started hyperventilating. There was nothing I could do to help him and Maggie and I was terrified for them. If I got out of this I would never forgive myself if they were killed and there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was wait everything out and hope for the best, which I was starting to feel like would never happen.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

I walked into the area outside of the cellblock and saw a woman locked in one of the outside cells while Rick was standing there staring at her.

 

“Who is she?” I asked standing next to him.

 

“She was standing outside the gate with a basket of formula, she’d been shot,” Rick replied,” she won’t talk.”

 

“Maybe she’ll talk if she’s not locked up feeling like a prisoner,” I suggested and Rick nodded.

 

Rick unlocked the cell door and the woman made her way out of the cell slowly, unsure if she could trust us.

 

“What’s your name?” I asked her.

 

“Michonne,” she replied simply.

 

“Where did you get the formula?” Rick asked her, clearly not in the mood for pleasantries.

 

“It was dropped by an Asian guy, a pretty brunette, and a short blonde girl,” she said.

 

“What happened to them? Were they attacked?” Hershel said after hearing that sentence.

 

“Taken,” Michonne said.

 

“Taken by who?” Rick said pressing down on her bullet wound.

 

“Don’t you ever touch me again!” Michonne snapped.

 

“Taken by who!?” Rick asked again.

 

“The same son of a bitch who shot me,” she replied through gritted teeth.

 

Rick and I stared at her waiting for an expliation.

 

“There’s this town, Woodbury,” she said, “run by this wolf in sheep’s clothing, calls himself the Governor. He’s a psycho. Makes everyone think he’s the nicest man in the world but I can tell he’s not right.”

 

Hershel called the group together and we all discussed what to do about this Governor character. No one was sure what they wanted to do because we didn’t want to lose this stability and possibly deal with a bigger threat than the walkers if this guy was anything like Michonne said. But I wasn’t on board with sitting around doing nothing.

 

“There’s no question. I’m going!” I said, “My wife is there! Maggie and Glenn are there! Those are our people!”

 

“I’m going too,” Oscar said.

 

“Count me in,” Axle agreed.

 

“It’s settled then,” Rick said, “Axle stay behind we need you here incase something happens. Daryl, Oscar you two will come with me.”

 

“I’m going to,” Michonne said, “You don’t know how to get there and I have some unfinished business with that prick.”

 

Rick nodded and we started to get everything we needed together to storm Woodbury.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summer’s POV**

I was still sitting stuck in that room and all I could hear was Maggie and Glenn’s screams. I wanted to be sick. I almost just wanted to call it quits but I didn’t even have the strength to break the chair or attempt to free myself. I was ashamed at the fact that all I could do was sit here and do nothing. Just then the door opened and Merle walked through.

 

“Where’s the group, Sum?” he asked.

 

“I’m not telling you, Merle,” I said, “my son is there and I am NOT putting him in harms way!”

“You’ll tell me, Summer, I know you will,” he said, “you always crack under pressure. You’ll give in.”

 

“I’m never going to tell you,” I said, “Daryl will come for me. You know he will and I won’t have to tell you jack shit.”

 

Merle just shrugged and walked out of the room and I was alone again. I was left there alone for another few hours before someone came in and untied me. I tried to fight them off but I didn’t have the energy. I was punched in the face again and then dragged to the room next to mine. I was thrown to the ground and when I looked up there was Glenn kneeling with his hands behind his head. I was told to get up and I was pushed to my knees and my hands brought behind my head. Some man who I had never seen before who was dressed a lot nicer than the other men and I assumed he was the Governor that everyone was talking about. He was holding Maggie by the arm and she was topless. I could see the look of horror spread across Glenn’s face and the Governor pointed his gun at Maggie’s head.

 

“Where are your people!?” he shouted.

 

Glenn glanced at me.

 

“Don’t say anything,” I said.

 

The Governor pulled back the hammer on the gun and pressed it closer to Maggie’s temple as I felt the barrel of a gun being pressed to the back of my head.

 

“I’m only going ask one more time before I kill you all one by one,” he said, “where are your people?”

 

I glanced at Glenn and then looked up a Maggie.

 

“We’re in a prison!” Maggie said tears streaming down her face.

 

Maggie was thrown toward me and Glenn and everyone put their guns down and everyone exited the room. Glenn wrapped his arms around Maggie and took off his shirt to give to her. She quickly put it on and I started crying. I felt like I was doing a lot of that today. The three of us were sitting on the floor for a while and I finally noticed that there was a dead walker on the floor. I looked over at Glenn and he nodded. I was horrified at what these people had done to Maggie and Glenn. Glenn didn’t even have to say it. I knew it was Merle who put the walker in here with him. But how Glenn managed to kill it I don’t think I’d ever know because I knew he wouldn’t want to talk about it. Finally Glenn got up and walked over to the dead walker. He broke it’s arm into a few pieces and pulled the bones out. He tossed a piece to me and a piece to Maggie and kept one for himself.

 

“Next time they come in here, we attack,” Glenn said simply and Maggie and I nodded.

 

It felt like we were in the room for hours before the door opened again. But the second it did we charged. Glenn went after Merle and Maggie and I killed the other two people that were with him. Maggie and I grabbed their guns and pointed them at Merle. I guess other people heard the commotion because in an instant we were faced with four more people pointing guns at us. We were forced to drop the guns and pushed to our knees once more. Bags were put over our heads again and our hands were tied and I heard Maggie tell Glenn she loves him. We were pulled up and started to be led out of the area when I head a loud bang and then I smelled smoke. I felt someone grab me by the arm and the bag on my head was ripped off. I looked over and saw Daryl and couldn’t help but smile and start crying again. Daryl, Rick, Oscar and a woman I didn’t recognize led us to an abandoned building and everyone helped us get our hands untied.

 

“There’s no way out back here!” Daryl called.

 

“Rick how did you find us?!” Maggie asked.

 

“How bad are you hurt?” Rick asked us.

 

“Eh, we’ll be alright,” Glenn said wincing.

 

“Where’s that woman?” Maggie asked and we all looked around to see where she was.

 

“She was right behind us,” Rick said pulling back some blinds to look out the window.

 

“Maybe she was spying?” Oscar said.

 

“What me to look for her?” Daryl volunteered.

 

“No,” Rick said, “We’ve got to get them out of here. She’s on her own.”

 

“Daryl,” Glenn said as Maggie put a sweatshirt on him, “this was Merle. It was. He did this.”

 

“You saw him?” Daryl asked.

 

“Face to face, he threw a walker at me,” Glenn said, “he was gonna execute us.”

 

“My brother’s this governor?” Daryl asked confused.

 

“No, someone else,” Maggie said, “your brother’s his lieutenant or something.”

“Does he know I’m still with you?” Daryl asked.

 

“He does now,” Glenn said, “Rick I’m sorry we told him where the prison was. We couldn’t hold out.”

 

“No need to apologize,” Rick said patting Glenn’s leg.

 

I tried to go over to Daryl but he looked pained and upset and started walking over to Rick who was once again looking out the window.

 

“They’re gonna be looking for us,” I said.

 

“We’ve gotta get back,” Rick said, “Can you walk? We’ve got a car a couple miles back.”

 

“I’m good,” Glenn replied.

 

I once again tried to reach for Daryl’s hand but he pulled it away from me. I wasn’t used to seeing him like this and I didn’t like it.

 

“Hey, if…if Merle’s around, I…I need to see him,” Daryl said walking over to Rick again.

 

“Not now, we are in hostile territory,” Rick said.

 

“He’s my brother he ain’t gonna –“ Daryl started to say but Rick cut him off.

 

“Look what he did!” Rick said pointing to my swollen bloody face, “We’ve gotta get out of here! Now!”

 

“Maybe I can talk to him man,” Daryl said almost pleading with Rick to let him see his brother, “work something out.”

 

“No, no, no, you’re not thinking straight,” Rick said, “look no matter what they say they’re hurt. Glenn can barely walk and Summer’s got a black eye so swollen she may have broken bones. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers or this governor character catches up to us? I need you! Are you with me?”

 

Daryl nodded at Rick but I knew he was fighting with the fact that his brother was alive and there was nothing he can do to get to him. We agreed that we needed to start to move back to the entrance. Daryl threw a flash bang out of the front door of the building we were in and we started to make our way to the entrance. We were greeted with gun fire left and right. We were trying our best to watch each other’s backs but it was hard when Glenn, Maggie and I had no weapons of our own. We took cover in a building alcove close to the entrance and Daryl handed me my bow.

 

“How many of them are there? Can you see?” Rick asked.

 

“Doesn’t matter,” Daryl said handing me a pistol and a knife, “there’s gonna be more of ‘em we gotta move!”

 

Daryl handed Maggie and Glenn guns as well and Rick barked orders at Daryl to get more of the flash bangs ready because we needed to gun it toward the wall if we were going to make it out of here alive.

 

“You guys go ahead, I’m gonna lay down some cover fire,” Daryl said slinging his bow on his back and grabbing a gun.

 

“No, we have to stay together!” I pleaded with him.

 

“Too hairy,” Daryl said dismissing my comment, “You guys go, I’ll be right behind you.”

 

I just started at Daryl in disbelief and he motioned for me to go. He threw a flash bang out into the street and I continued to stare at him.

 

“Summer! I ain’t losin’ ya ta this shit! Think about Harry!” he shouted at me, “GO!”

 

I nodded at him and started running in the direction of the gate. My instinct was to use my crossbow but I heard Rick shouting at me to use my gun. I nodded and him and we all started firing. We reached the front gate and Oscar helped me and Glenn over the gate and got shot in the process. Maggie and I started screaming for Rick and he finally made his way over to us. Rick and Maggie made their way over the gate.

 

“Daryl!” Rick yelled.

 

“Go!” I heard Daryl shout.

 

After that all I could hear was gunfire. We found the woman that was with us earlier and everyone started walking back toward the car. That’s when I started screaming for Daryl and started walking back toward the gate. Rick tried to stop me from running back into Woodbury. I fought him off and he eventually grabbed me by the waist as I was approaching the gate because he noticed the new watchmen and I didn’t. He picked me up and threw me into a fireman’s carry. I continued to scream for Daryl and started punching Rick in the back. We finally reached the car and Rick set me down.

 

“We have to get him! Rick!” I shouted through sobs, “We have to go back! We can’t leave him there! You don’t know what these people are capable of! What if they have him!? Rick please!”

 

“Summer, calm down!” Rick shouted at me, “He said he will be right behind us and he will!”

 

“Then we wait for him!” I said sitting on the ground leaning against the car, “I am not moving from this spot until he comes back.”

 

“No one’s saying otherwise,” Rick said sitting down next to me.

 

Rick but his arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder trying to calm myself down. I knew I needed to for my own sake along with the fact that the tears that kept falling were burning the shit out of the cuts under my eye. It wasn’t working out all that well because I was more than worried about Daryl and every single minute waiting for him felt like an eternity. But I knew we had to wait and I would wait here forever if I had to.


	32. Chapter 32

**Daryl’s POV**

While I was firing off rounds I was grabbed from behind and a bag was thrown over my head and my hands were tied. I tried to fight the person off but it was no use. I felt the person remove my bow and gun and I was being dragged off to another area. My heart was racing. I knew that these people were going to kill me. From the way Glenn and Summer looked I knew they were going to take no mercy. I was lead to an area and I could hear some guy, who I’m assuming was the governor, giving a speech. I kept trying to fight these people off but they were holding on tight.

 

“What can I say?” I heard this man say, “there hasn’t been a night like this since the walls were completed and I thought we were past it. Past the days when we all sat huddle scared in front of the TV during the early days of the outbreak. The fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. I’ve failed you. I promised to keep you safe. Hell, look at me. Ya know, I…I should tell ya that we’ll be ok, that we’re safe. That tomorrow we will bury our dead and endure but I won’t. Because I can’t. Because I am afraid. That’s right. I’m afraid of terrorists who want what we have. Want to destroy us. It’s worse cause one of those terrorists is one of our own. Merle!”

 

When he said Merle’s name my heartbeat quickened and I heard a bunch of murmuring. Clearly there was a crowd.

 

“A man I counted on, a man I trusted. He led them here, and he let them in. It was you, you lied. Betrayed us all,” the man said and I was being led somewhere again finally we stopped and I continued fighting the people who were holding me off.

 

“This is one of the terrorists,” the man said and I was grabbed by the arm and the bag was pulled off of my head, “Merle’s own brother!”

 

He let me go and I just stared at Merle. I was confused and dumbfounded and I was also more than terrified. I wasn’t one to show my emotions but I knew all of these things were plastered to my face as I tried to catch my breath and comprehend what was going on. We were standing surrounded by people in an area with two large blocks on either end and stadium lights lit around the perimeter along with some tall fire pits. It looked like we were in some kind of fighting arena.

 

“What should we do with them, huh?” this governor said.

 

I heard people shouting ‘kill them’ among other things. I was freaking out now. I just looked around at the people and over at Merle and tried to decipher what to do.

 

“You wanted your brother,” the governor said to Merle, “now you’ve got him.”

 

The crowd continued to get riled up and continued to shout for our deaths. I was fighting back tears because I knew what these people could do. I was thinking about Summer and Harry and it was taking everything in me not to break down. I looked over and saw Andrea running from the crowd. She was trying to fight for us.

 

“Philip don’t do this!” she said, “He’s my friend!”

 

“It’s not up to me anymore,” the governor said, “the people have decided.”

 

“What!?” Andrea questioned and the governor turned to look at Merle while my hands were being untied.

 

“I asked you where your loyalties lie,” the governor said, “you said here. Well prove it, prove it to us all. Brother against brother. Winner goes free. Fight! To the death!”

 

I was more than confused and Andrea kept pleading for him to stop this. I looked at Merle and Merle glanced at me and then turned to the crowd.

 

“Ya’ll know me!” he shouted, “I’m gonna do whatever I’ve gotta do to prove!”

 

He sucker punched me in the gut.

 

“That my loyalty!” he shouted and kicked me, “is to this town!”

 

He kicked me again and by this point he was wailing on me. I finally got a punch in and he stumbled backwards. I got up and noticed people were bringing walkers into the arena on poles. I got up and charged at Merle but he threw me to the ground. I gripped his throat as he tried to grip mine with his one hand.

 

“You really think this asshole’s gonna let you go?” I said.

 

“Just follow my lead little brother,” he said, “we’re gettin out of this. Right now!”

 

The two of us stood up and stood back-to-back starting to fight off walkers. Having no weapons was what was worrying me at this point. All I could do was punch the walkers in the head as hard as I could. In the midst of the fighting shots rang out. One of the walkers was shot in the head and everyone started screaming. Some one else was shot and then a flash bang landed in the middle of the arena. Rick. Everyone started to flee the area and Rick started shooting out the stadium lights. Merle and I were still trying to take down walkers as the smoke flared up. I heard Andrea calling for me but I didn’t have time. I grabbed Merle by the arm and told him we needed to go. As we were running I saw a guy with my bow. I grabbed it from him and found Rick and Maggie and we started running. Trying to blend in with the crowd that was pushing it’s way away from the commotion. We made our way to one of the perimeter gates.

 

“They’re all at the arena, this way!” Merle said.

 

“You’re not going anywhere with us,” Rick replied.

 

“You really wanna do this now!?” Merle said and began to break down a part of the fence.

 

“Rick come on, we gotta go,” I said once the fence was opened.

 

We climbed through and helped Merle kill some walkers and we all ran off in the direction of the car. As we approached it I heard Rick call out to Glenn and Summer.

 

“Rick!” Summer shouted, “oh thank god.”

 

“What the hell is he doing here!” Glenn shouted and Michonne pulled out her katana.

 

Rick pointed his gun at her and Glenn was pointing his gun at Merle. While everyone else was trying to calm the situation down.

 

“He helped us get out of there, now drop it,” I said to Glenn.

 

“Yeah after he kicked the shit out of you,” Rick said.

 

“Hey we both got our licks in,” Merle said.

 

“Jackass,” I said to him.

 

Rick said it was enough and I shouted at Glenn to get the gun out of my face Merle chuckled.

 

“Looks like you’re going native there brother,” Merle said.

 

“No more than you hangin out with that psycho over there,” I said getting in his face.

 

“Oh yeah man, he is a charmer I’ll tell ya that,” he said, “been puttin the wood to yer girlfriend Andrea big time baby.”

 

“Andrea’s in Woodbury?” Summer asked confused.

 

“Yeah, right next to the governor,” I said.

 

Rick shouted at Michonne to drop her sword and asked her repeatedly if she knew Andrea and of course Merle had to stick his two cents in about Andrea and Michonne and their time together. I told him to shut up but he just kept talking. No one wanted to believe that Andrea was with the governor. We kept telling Merle to shut up and since he wouldn’t Rick bashed him in the back of the head with his pistol. Glenn called Merle an asshole before walking away.

 

“Are you alright?” Summer asked approaching me slowly.

 

“I’m fine,” I said, “got outta there in one piece.”

 

“Good,” she said and kicked some rocks on the ground shoving her hands in her back pockets as she looked down at the ground.

 

Her hair was a mess and her clothes were stained in blood and covered in dirt. Since we freed them from Woodbury this was the first time I actually looked at her. Her lip was split and bruises were starting to form around her right eye. There were cuts all over her face. I went to lift her chin and she winced.

 

“Who did this to you?” I asked her.

 

“Some guy,” she said and shrugged, “Merle killed him after he saw what he did. But then the longer we were there…Merle hit me a few times too. I guess his special treatment toward me was frowned upon. At first he told nobody to lay a finger on me. But by the time Maggie, Glenn and I were brought together he had hit me. He’s the one who did this to my eye.”

 

Hearing her say that my blood started boiling. I wanted to kill my brother then and there but I couldn’t, I knew I couldn’t. He was a piece of shit but he was still my blood. I was conflicted. I knew he only hit Summer to cover his own ass. He never liked to look weak to people but at the same time I couldn’t let him get away with doing this to her. I figured I would just deal with him on my own later. I went to pull Summer into a hug but she backed away from me. She looked scared as if she couldn’t trust me or she was afraid of me. I had only seen her look at me like that once in my life and then she disappeared for two years. It was not a feeling I was comfortable with and it sure as hell wasn’t something I wanted to become a habit.

 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked her.

 

“You,” she said simply, “you wanted to just stay there and find your brother. I know that’s why ya wanted ta stay there and lay down ‘cover fire’. I ain’t stupid, Daryl. How many times in the past ten years have you chosen Merle over me!? It’s not like it was before all of this. We have a son, Daryl. A son who needs his daddy and he won’t have one if ya keep runnin off like this tryin ta cover Merle’s ass. It’s either me or him and I ain’t changin my mind about it. You pick.”

 

I just stared at her dumbfounded and unable to think of anything to say. I never wanted to have to choose between her and Merle. I didn’t ever think I would have to. I wanted to be able to be with both of them. They were the only family I had in this world and I didn’t want to have to split them up.

 

“I’m gonna figure out a way to bring Merle back with us,” I said to her, “and I ain’t never chosen Merle over you, Sum. Ya gotta know that. You come first, ya always have.”

 

She nodded and walked away and I knew she didn’t believe me. Rick called us all together and I was gonna try and fight my case to bring Merle back with us.

 

“It won’t work,” Rick said.

 

“It’s gotta,” I said.

 

“It’ll stir things up,” Rick replied.

 

“The governor is probably already on his way to the prison right now,” I retaliated, “Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle.”

 

“He’s not coming to the prison,” Maggie said.

 

“Think about this, do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Summer, Carol, Beth?” Glenn said.

 

“He ain’t a rapist,” I said.

 

“Well his buddy is,” Glenn replied.

 

“They ain’t buddies no more,” I said, “not after last night.”

 

“There’s no way Merle’s gonna live there without putting everyone at each other’s throats,” Rick said.

 

“So you’re just gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?” I questioned starting to get extremely frustrated.

 

“She’s not coming back,” Rick said with some finality.

 

“She’s not in a state to be on her own,” I piped up, “and she did bring you guys to us.”

 

“And then she ditched us,” Rick said.

 

“At least let my dad stitch her up,” Maggie suggested.

 

“She’s too unpredictable,” Rick said.

 

“That’s right,” I said wanting to run on Rick’s distrust of Michonne, “we don’t know who she is. Now Merle, Merle’s blood.”

 

“No, Merle is your blood,” Glenn said, “my blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison.”

 

“And you’re part of that family,” Rick said putting a protective arm around Summer which just pissed me off, “but he’s not.”

 

“He’s not?” I said getting heated, “man ya’ll don’t know.”

 

Everyone just stared at me.

 

“Fine,” I said, “we’ll just fend for ourselves.”

 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Summer said and started to cry.

 

“No man, that’s not what I meant,” Glenn said.

 

“Nah, you don’t get it,” I said, “no him, no me.”

 

“Daryl you don’t have to do that,” Maggie said trying to soften me up a bit.

 

“It’s fine, it was always Merle and me before this,” I said.

 

“Don’t,” Maggie said.

 

“You’re serious?” Glenn questioned, “You’re just gonna leave like that?”

  
“And what about me, huh jackass!?” Summer said getting in my face, “What about your son!? Do ya not give a shit!? I guess I really never knew ya then. Love of my life my ass. I told ya ya had ta choose between me and Harry or Merle and I can see pretty fucking clearly now how much ya care about us. Ya know ya sure are a great role modle for Harry! Your dad walked out on you and now you’re abandoning us! I should have expected this! I was a fool for ever thinking that you would actually be there for him. I was stupid to think that you would grow up and man up and be a fucking adult! So go! Go off with him! Have fun! And if ya ever decide ta come back lord help you.”

 

“Say goodbye to your pop for me,” I said pushing past Maggie and Glenn.

 

Summer ran up behind me and grabbed my arm. I turned to face her and she slapped me hard across the face.

 

“I hope you’re fucking happy,” she said and stormed off.

 

I continued walking in the direction where Merle was and Rick caught up to me. I could hear Summer crying and Maggie trying to comfort her but I was just trying to tune it out.

 

“Hey,” Rick said, “hey! There’s got to be another way.”

 

“Don’t ask me to leave him,” I said and continued to walk, “I already did that once.”

 

“We started something last night, you realize that,” Rick said catching up to me again, “if he shows up he could kill Summer and Harry and everyone else. Do you not get that!?”

 

“What can I say,” I said, “no him, no me. That’s all there is to it.”

 

I started gathering my things from the trunk of the car and packing it into my bag.

 

“Take care of yourself,” I said to Rick, “and take care of lil ass kicker, and Carl. He’s one tough kid.”

 

I started walking into the woods and I turned around to face him.

 

“And uh,” I said not entirely sure how to say what I wanted to say, “Keep an eye on Harry for me? He’s, uhm, he’s gonna need some kind of father figure.”

 

“Daryl!” Rick shouted after me, “Daryl come back here!”

 

“Come on, bro,” I said to Merle and he stopped me and walked over to Summer.

 

**Summer’s POV**

As we were about to pack up everything and leave Merle approached me. I just stared at him in disgust.

 

“Ya shoulda known, sugar tits,” Merle said with a shit eating grin, “you were just a long term lay for him, and Harry just happened to be an accident. I told ya from tha beginnin us Dixon’s…we just fuck ‘em and leave ‘em.”

 

Merle turned around and walked toward Daryl and my lip started to tremble. I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces. Is that what he really thought of me? I was just some girl to fuck the entire time we were married? The entire time we were together? I felt sick to my stomach and I doubled over and threw up next to the car. Rick came to check on me and helped me into the car so we could get back to the prison.

When we finally pulled up to the prison I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. I was upset and I was more than pissed off. I practically jumped out of the car and ran into the cellblock. I picked up Harry from Beth and went into our cell and when I saw one of Daryl’s shirts sitting on the bed I began crying hysterically. Sensing my emotion Harry began to cry too.

 

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” I said trying to calm down as I rocked Harry, “I don’t want to tell you this but daddy, daddy left with your stupid uncle Merle and he’s not coming back.”

I finally got Harry to sleep and I cried silently to myself for what seemed like hours. Eventually I fell asleep. I was woken up a few hours later by Harry crying to be fed. Beth walked in the cell with Judith and a bowl of baby food for Harry. I smiled at her as she handed me the bowl and I picked up Harry.

 

“Daryl will be back you know,” Beth said to me.

 

“I should have expected it, ya know?” I said, “He and I…he and I have broken up so many times because of Merle. I shouldn’t have been so stupid to think he would come back here with me and not leave with Merle.”

 

“He’s going to come back, Summer,” Beth replied, “He practically ran out of here to go get you when we found out you guys were taken. He’s not going to just leave you and Harry. He wouldn’t do that. He loves you. Both of you.”

 

“I hope you’re right about that,” I said to her.

 

I finished feeding Harry and Beth went to talk to Carol while I sang Harry a lullaby. I was a few bars in before I realized I was singing him mine and Daryl’s wedding song and I broke down all over again.


	33. Chapter 33

**Daryl’s POV**

After Merle rejoined me we started heading into the woods. We were walking for a few miles in silence before we started talking. And once we started talking it was awkward because I hadn’t seen him in months and I was constantly worrying about if my decision to go with him was the right one. I had basically just blatantly lied to Summer by telling her she always came first and then up and left with Merle. But that was always how it was with us, we were always looking out for each other. We walked in silence for about a mile and passed some empty houses. Finally I couldn’t take the awkwardness anymore.

 

“Man, there ain’t nothin out here but mosquitoes and ants,” I said.

 

He looked over at me and laughed.

 

“Patience little brother,” he said, “a squirrel’s bound to scurry across your path.”

 

“Even so, that ain’t much food,” I replied moving some of the brush around with the toe of my boot trying to pick up a trail.

 

“More than nothin,” Merle replied and walked further ahead of me.

 

“We’d have better luck going through one of them houses we passed back on the turn off,” I said absentmindedly.

 

“IS that what your new friends taught you?” Merle said stopping in his tracks, “Hm? How to loot for booty?”

 

“Man we’ve been at it for hours,” I said stopping as well, “Why don’t we find a stream? Look for some fish?”

 

“I think you’re just trying to lead me back to that road man,” he said pointing his finger at me, “Get me over to that prison.”

 

“It’s shelter, food, a pot ta piss in,” I said and continued walking, “Might not be a bad idea.”

 

“To you maybe,” he said catching up to me, “It ain’t gonna be no damn party for me.”

 

“Everyone will get used to each other,” I said trying to ignore him.

 

“They’re all dead,” he said and I slowed down, “It makes no difference.”

 

“How can you be so sure?” I asked him trying to keep my voice steady, I hadn’t even thought of the possibility that the governor would attack so quickly.

 

“Right about now he’s probably hosting a house warming party,” Merle said and my brain went haywire, “where he’s gonna bury what’s left of your pals.”

 

I stayed silent. What if Merle was right? What if I finally did lure him over there and the place was in ruins? I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. I promised her I would never let anything happen to her and here I was basically leaving her vulnerable and leaving her safety, our son’s safety, in the hands of other people. I tried my best to keep my face blank and walk at a steady pace even though I felt like I was going to black out at any moment. Merle seemed to notice my silence and how upset I was getting and tried to lighten the mood.

 

“Let’s hook some fish. Come on, “ he said, “smells to me like it’s the Sawhatchee Creek.”

 

“Nah,” I said finally finding my voice, “we didn’t go west enough. If there’s a river down there it’s gotta be the Yellow Jacket.”

 

“Ya have a stroke boy?” Merle questioned me, “We ain’t even gonna come close to Yellow Jacket.”

 

“We didn’t go west,” I said challenging him, “just a little bit south. That’s what I think.”

 

“Know what I think?” he said and scoffed, “I may have lost my hand, but you lost your sense of direction.”

 

“Yeah, we’ll see,” I said.

 

“What do you wanna bet?” he asked.

 

“I don’t wanna bet nothin,” I snapped back at him, “it’s just a body of water. Why does everything gotta be a competition with you?!”

 

“Woah, woah,” he said putting his arms up, “take it easy little brother. Just trying to have a little fun here. No need to get your panties in a bundle.”

 

I was about to retaliate when I heard what sounded like a baby crying. My immediate thought was that Summer had left the prison to come after me but I quickly pushed that thought aside, she was more than pissed that I left.

 

“You hear that?” I asked Merle.

 

“Yeah,” he said, “wild animals getting wild.”

 

“No, it’s a baby,” I said simply.

 

“Oh, come on! Why don’t ya just piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining too?” Merle responded, “That there’s the sound of a couple coons making love, sweet love. Know what I mean?”

I ignored him and went in the direction of the sound. When we finally reached the source I saw a group of people swarmed by a heard on the bridge over the river and sure enough there was a baby crying. I made my way up the hill and up toward the highway, loading my bow as I went.

 

“Hey man! I ain’t wasting my bullets on a couple of strangers that ain’t never cooked me a meal or felaciated my piece, that’s my policy,” Merle called up after me, “You’d best be wise to adopt it brother!”

 

I ignored him and started taking out walkers as I approached the opening of the bridge. One of the men saw me and aimed his gun at me and I heard Merle come up behind me.

 

“Come on, man. I’m trying to help you out!” I said to the guy and turned to Merle, “cover me!”

 

I started taking out more walkers all across the bridge. I was sure Merle was taking them out too but I couldn’t be too certain. I turned to see if he was alright and could feel one of the walkers closing in on me. Suddenly it dropped.

 

“Daryl! I got ya! Go!” Merle shouted and I took out the last few walkers that were across the bridge.

 

One of the men, who I now knew were Spanish, started speaking to me and I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying.

 

“Speak English,” I said to him and he continued to shake his head at me.

 

I saw Merle poking around their car and immediately raised my bow and went over to him. I heard a woman speaking Spanish rapidly to Merle while the baby continued to cry.

 

“Slow down beaner,” I heard him say, “That ain’t no way to say thank you.”

 

“Let ‘em go,” I said.

 

“Relax,” he said looking over his shoulder at me, “the least they can do is give us an enchilada or something, huh?”

 

“Get out of the car,” I said more firmly.

 

“I know you’re not talking to me, brother,” he said getting pissed off as he exited the car.

 

“Get in your car and get the hell out of here!” I said to one of the men and he just stared at me, “Go! Get in your car!”

 

The men got in the car and I continued to stand there with my bow pointed at Merle.

 

“That shit you doin’ pointing that thing at me?!” Merle said and I lowered the bow and continued to walk.

 

“They were scared man,” I said once I heard him catching up to me.

 

“They were rude is what they were,” he said, “rude and they owed us a token of gratitude.”

 

“They didn’t owe us nothin,” I said.

 

“You helping people out of the goodness of your heart?” he questioned, “Even though you might die doing it? Is that something your sheriff Rick taught you?”

 

“There was a baby!” I said stopping and turning to face him.

 

“Oh!” he said, “otherwise you would have just left them to the biters then? Or did ya think it was Summer and Harry coming to find ya?”

 

I almost felt ashamed that he was right about that last part, but I was getting so fed up with him.

 

“Man, I went back for ya,” I said, “You weren’t there. I didn’t cut off your hand neither. You did that. Way before they locked you up on that roof. You asked for it.”

 

“You know – you know what’s funny to me? You and sheriff Rick are like this now,” he said wrapping his fingers around each other as he closed in on me, “Right? I bet you a penny and a fiddle of gold that you never told him that we were planning on robbing that camp blind.”

 

“It didn’t happen,” I said.

 

“Yeah, it didn’t,” he said, “cause I wasn’t there to help you.”

 

“What, like when we were kids, huh?” I said getting heated, “Who left who then!?”  


“What? Huh? Is that why I lost my hand?!” Merle shouted at me.

 

“You lost your hand cause you’re a simpleminded piece of shit,” I spat at him.

 

“Yeah! You don’t know,” he said and tackled me to the ground.

 

We started fighting, throwing punches left and right. I went to get up and get away from him when he grabbed the back of my shirt pulling me back to him and I heard the fabric rip. I knew my entire back was exposed which meant that so were my scars.

 

“I – I didn’t know he was,” Merle stammered.

 

“Yeah,” I said trying to cover myself up, “he did. He did the same to you that’s why you left first.”

 

“I had to man,” he said, “I would have killed him otherwise.”

 

I started walking away from him as I threw my bag back on my back.

 

“Where you going?” he asked me.

 

“Back where I belong,” I said, “back to my wife and son. I shoulda never chose you to go with in the first place.”

 

“Well you were pretty fucking quick to leave them,” he said trying to sound tough, “so you must not care that much.”

 

I was in front of him in an instant my hand was locked around his throat and I slammed him into one of the tree trunks.

 

“Don’t you EVER tell me I don’t care about my family,” I shouted, “that is my wide and my son. Summer has been there for me a hell of a lot more than you have so why don’t you just shut the fuck up! I’m going back to the prison and that’s final. If you follow me and they let you in – fine. If they don’t then you’re S-O-L big brother because I’m going back to my family and you’re gonna have to deal with it.”

 

I let him go and walked off in the direction of the prison while he knelt there catching his breath.

 

“I can’t go with you,” Merle shouted after me, “I tried to kill that black bitch. Damn near killed the Chinese kid.”

 

“He’s Korean,” I shouted back.

 

“Whatever!” He said and I could hear him following me, “Doesn’t matter man, I just can’t go with you.”

 

“Ya know,” I said turning to face him, “I may be the one walking away…but you’re the one that’s leaving again.”

 

I turned around before he could respond and continued my way to the prison.

 

**Summer’s POV**

I had spent most of the day seated in one of the guard towers on watch duty just incase Daryl decided to come back. Of course I knew he wouldn’t because he always left everything behind for Merle. I did however notice Rick walking around the outer perimeter fence acting oddly. I figured I did all the watching I could for today and went to find Hershel to let him know about Rick because I knew he could try and talk some sense into him. Hershel went down to talk to him and I took Harry from Beth and went into my cell to read to him. We were having a nice quiet time for a while before I heard gun fire and loud crashing noises. I felt the walls shake and I knew immediately that we were under attack. I didn’t even have to think twice. I picked up Harry and shut the cell door and barricaded it with the mattresses from the bunks. He was crying at the top of his lungs and I was loading my gun silently praying to God that we would be safe as I tried to soothe him.

 

“It’s gonna be ok, baby,” I said kissing his forehead, “mommy’s gonna keep you safe. We’re gonna be just fine.”

 

I knew my voice was shaking but he started to quiet down none-the-less. I sat there motionless with my gun pointed toward the cell door just incase anyone decided to come in and raid the block. I sat there for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes before the noise stopped. I heard footsteps and shouting and I was preparing to shoot anyone who tried to hurt either of us.

 

“SUMMER!” I heard Daryl shouting, “SUMMER WHERE ARE YOU!?”

 

I finally realized that we were no longer under attack and holstered my gun. I picked up Harry and moved the mattresses back on the bunks and when I went to open the cell door Daryl was standing there. My first reaction was happiness but then I remembered what Merle said and my happiness immediately turned into anger as I slid the cell door open.

 

“Summer are you alright?” he said stepping toward me, “Is Harry alright?”

 

“Why the fuck should you care?” I spat at him taking a step back, “Harry is just a mistake to you.”

 

“What the hell are you talking about?” He asked me taking another step forward.

 

“Don’t come near us,” I said, “Merle told me everything. Is that all I am to you? A long term lay? I’m sorry for you being stuck with me and Harry being born but guess what, asshole, we don’t need you.”

 

“Sum, what in God’s name are you talking about?!” he pleaded with me, “Harry isn’t a mistake and you were never a long term lay. What the hell has gotten into you!?”

 

“Merle told me how you really feel,” I said holding back tears, “He told me how I was just some long term lay and then you went off with him. Just left us. So I figured he was right. If I meant more to you…if we meant more to you, you wouldn’t have left.”

 

“I came back for you!” he said I could tell he was trying to hold back tears as well, “I realized I made the wrong choice while I was out there with him. You and Harry come first. You always have.”

 

“Clearly not, Daryl,” I said and the tears started falling, “because if that were the case you would have never left with him in the first place!”

 

“Summer, he’s family,” he said, “What was I supposed to do? Just leave him there!? I did that once already!”

 

“He can fend for himself!” I shouted, “We both know that! I can fend for myself too but Harry can’t, Daryl! He’s only a little over a year old! Stop thinking about Merle for once and think about the people who actually care about you and need you!”

 

“He needs me too!” he shouted back.

 

“No, he doesn’t, Dar!” I said, “He really doesn’t! I need you! Your son needs you! The people here need you! This is your family now. It’s so much bigger than just you, me, and Merle.”

 

“Summer, I’m sorry, alright?” he said, “I fucked up!”

 

“Yeah, you did,” I said, “don’t come anywhere near us. I am so completely done with you. I know Merle came back here with you I can hear him shouting at Rick so go. Go be with him if you care so much about him. I can’t even look at you.”

 

“Summer please,” he begged.

 

“Go,” I said and turned around to lay Harry down on the bed.

 

I heard him sigh and walk away and as I laid Harry down the uncontrollable sobbing took over. I wanted him to be here with me so bad but I was so completely disgusted with him that I needed some space. Him spending some alone time with Merle would hopefully help him realize who the people were that actually cared about him.


	34. Chapter 34

**Summer’s POV**

The next morning everyone was convening in the center of the cellblock to determine what we should do. I was feeling like staying here would be our best option for safety. If we ran we would be too exposed and way too easy of targets.

 

“We’re not leaving,” Rick said matter-of-factly.

 

“We can’t stay here,” Hershel pleaded with him.

 

“What if there’s another sniper? A wood pallet won’t stop one of those bullets,” Maggie said.

 

“We can’t even go outside,” Beth stated.

 

“If Rick says we’re not running, we’re not running,” Glenn said shutting everyone down.

 

I was standing near the railing on the top floor a few feet away from Daryl trying to ignore the fact that he was constantly looking over at me and saw Merle walk up to the closed of cellblock door.

 

“No,” he said, “better to live like rats.”

 

“You got a better idea?” I spat bitterly at him.

 

“Yeah, I do sugar tits,” he said smugly, “we shoulda slid outta here last night. Live to fight another day. But we lost that window didn’t we. I’m sure he’s got scouts on every road outta this place by now.”  


“Yeah, we ain’t scared of that prick,” Daryl said clearly trying to stand up to him for me.

 

It pissed me off.

 

“Ya’ll should be,” Merle said, “that truck through the fence thing? That’s just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind but he’s got the guns and the numbers…and if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to.”

 

“Let’s put him in the other cellblock,” I said absentmindedly.

 

“No,” Daryl said turning to me, “he’s got a point.”

 

“This is all your fault, you started this!” I shouted at Merle completely ignoring Daryl.

 

“What’s the difference who’s fault it is!?” Beth said trying to keep the Dixon family feud from exploding, “What do we do?”

 

“I said we should leave,” Hershel stated again, “now Axle’s dead. We can’t just sit here.”

 

Rick started to walk toward the cellblock door and Hershel yelled at him to come back. We were all shocked at Hershel’s outburst and even more shocked to see that Rick stopped in his tracks and turned around.

 

“You’re slipping, Rick,” Hershel said, “we’ve all seen it. We understand why but now is not the time. You once said this isn’t a democracy, now you have to own up to that. I put my family’s life in your hands. Daryl put _his_ family’s life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something.”

 

With that Rick walked out of the cellblock and left the rest of us alone. Daryl came walking over to me and I brushed him off. I knew I might have been being a little bit unreasonable but I was still unbelievably mad at him. I went back into my cell to pick up Harry and feed and change him. I could feel Daryl looking at me from the entrance to the cell and chose to ignore him. A few minutes later I heard him walk away and I sat down to read Harry a story before lying him down for his nap. I started to tell him stories about all the things Daryl and I had done when we were younger and I found myself explaining to him that if I hadn’t been in a car accident that he would have a big sister. I almost started crying and caught myself. I then started to remember how broken we all were, Merle included, when I lost the baby and I instantly regretted keeping Harry from meeting Merle and for being pissed off at him in general. Daryl made the decision to leave with him, not Merle. And I know that Merle only said what he said to me to stir the pot. To keep me mad at him so I wouldn’t be mad at Daryl. I then started thinking about the one doctor’s appointment I had just before all of this happened. Daryl couldn’t make it and since the accident that caused me to lose our first child he forced Merle to take me to the doctor. He was so excited and emotional when he saw his nephew on the ultra sound monitor. I even remembered the nurse printing out an extra picture for Merle. I had decided that maybe it was time for them to meet.

 

I peeked out of the cell to make sure Daryl wasn’t around and made my way over to the small cell on the opposite side of the common room. Merle was sitting on his bunk fussing with the contraption he made to cover his stump. He looked up when he heard me approaching. He looked amused and also very confused as to why I was standing in the doorway of his cell with my son when I had so blatantly made it clear that I wanted him nowhere near the baby.

 

“I’m waving the white flag,” I said.

 

“Oh are you now?” he said and smirked.

 

“I know you only told me what you told me to keep me from being mad at Daryl for leaving,” I said, “I’m calling a truce. I figured it was time for Harry to meet his uncle Merle.”

 

“I might have said that stuff to be mean,” Merle said looking away from me and at Harry.

 

“That’s what I’ll tell people,” I said with a laugh, “do you want to hold him?”

 

“Can I?” Merle asked smiling.

 

I nodded and handed Harry over to Merle. Merle sat him on his lap and stared bouncing his knee, which caused Harry to start laughing uncontrollably. I just stood there and smiled at the scene in front of me. Merle was talking to him in baby talk and Harry was completely mesmerized by him. I let Merle play with him for a few more minutes before letting him know it was Harry’s naptime. Merle kissed him on the forehead and handed him back to me. I turned to walk away when Merle called my name.

 

“Yeah,” I said turning to face him.

 

“Thanks,” he said and I nodded.

 

As I went to head back to my cell I could see Daryl standing at the railing at the edge of the catwalk staring at the scene below him. He was smiling even though it was a sad sort of smile. I looked up and him and smiled and nodded as I walked over to the stairs. He knew I still wasn’t speaking to him but it was more to just give me some space at this point than me actually being mad, so he didn’t come around to the cell to try and talk to me, which I was grateful for. Just then Rick came barging into the cellblock.

 

“Take watch, eyes open, head down,” he said to Maggie and she took the rifle and nodded.

 

Daryl went down the stairs to meet Rick as he was explaining what he saw.

 

“Field’s filled with walkers,” he said, “I didn’t see any snipers out there but we’re keeping Maggie on watch.”

 

“I could get up in the guard tower,” Daryl suggested, “take out half these walkers. Gives us a chance to fix the fence.”

 

“Our we could use some of the cars to put the bus in place,” Michonne suggested.

 

“We cant access the field without burning through our bullets,” Hershel said with a sigh.

 

I put Harry down and joined the group of them at the bottom of the stairs.

 

“So we’re trapped in here,” I said, “there’s barely any food or ammo.”

 

“We’ve been here before, we’ll be alright,” Daryl mumbled to me.

 

“That’s when it was just us,” Glenn said, “before there was a snake in the nest.”

 

“Man we gonna go through this again?!” Daryl said advancing on Glenn, “look Merle’s staying here. He’s with us now. Get used to it.”

 

“Hey,” Rick said.

 

“All of ya’ll,” Daryl said and stormed back up the stairs to the empty cell he claimed once we started fighting.

 

“Seriously Rick, I don’t think Merle living here is really gonna fly,” Glenn said.

 

“I can’t kick him out,” Rick said.

 

“I wouldn’t ask you to live with Shane after he tried to kill you!” Glenn spat back.

 

“Merle has military experience,” I cut in trying to help diffuse the situation.

 

“He may be erratic,” Hershel jumped in seeing where I was going, “but don’t underestimate his loyalty to his brother.”

 

I couldn’t listen to them bicker over Merle anymore and decided to head back up to the cell to check on Harry and attempt to take a nap myself.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

I heard the rest of the conversation and I was grateful that even though Summer wasn’t speaking to me she tried to stand up for Merle. I settled myself down on my bunk and began fiddling with my arrows when Carol walked in and leaned on the doorframe.

 

“I haven’t had a chance to say,” she said, “I’m glad you came back.”

 

“Ta what?” I said and sighed, “All this? My wife won’t even speak to me or let me near our son.”

 

“This is our home,” she said sitting down next to me.

 

“Ain’t no home if I don’t have Summer,” I said looking down and fiddling with my arrow some more, “this is a tomb.”

 

“That’s what T-Dog called it,” she said, “and I thought so too until you found me. She will come around. Just give her some time.”

 

I went back to fiddling with my arrow not knowing what to say.

 

“He’s your brother,” she continued, “but he’s not good for you. He tore your family apart. Don’t let him bring you down. After all look how far you’ve come.”

 

I couldn’t help but laugh a little at her last statement and she patted my knee and walked out of the cell. I could hear Summer singing softly to Harry and it made my heart hurt. I just wanted to be in that cell with her, but Carol was right, she needed time. So I continued to sit there fiddling with my arrows before Carl came running in saying that Andrea was coming toward the prison and we all needed to be out in the yard. I sprang out of my bed, grabbed my bow, and headed out to the front yard with Glenn, Rick, and Merle. We were all posed, ready to fire, when Rick told Merle to go. He cleared the area and we ran to the gate.

 

“Are you alone?” Rick shouted.

 

“Open the gate!” Andrea shouted back.

 

“Are you alone!?” Rick shouted again.

 

“Rick!” she shouted and we let her in the gate.

 

Rick threw her up against the fence and frisked her before helping her up and leading her inside the prison. The rest of us followed suit. Hershel, Carol, and Summer came into the common room and Andrea immediately went and hugged Carol. Andrea asked about Shane and Lori. Rick looked away and Hershel explained what happened to Lori and Maggie told her that T-Dog hadn’t survived either.

 

“Do you all live here?” she asked.

 

“In the cell block,” Glenn said.

 

“Can I see?” she asked and started walking forward.

 

“I can’t allow that,” Rick said stepping in front of her.

 

“I’m not an enemy here,” she said.

 

“We had that field and court yard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up,” Rick said.

 

“He said you fired first,” Andrea said confused.

 

“Well he’s lying,” rick stated.

 

“He killed an inmate that survived in here,” Hershel said.

 

“We like him,” I chimed in, “he was one of us.”

 

“I didn’t know anything about that,” she said, “as soon as I found out I came. I didn’t even know you were in Woodbury until the shoot out.”

 

“That was days ago,” Summer said.

 

“I told you, I came as soon as I could,” she said.

 

“What have you told them,” she said turning on Michonne.

 

“Nothing,” Michonne said smugly.

 

“I don’t get it,” Andrea said, “I left Atlanta with you people and now I’m the odd man out.”

 

“He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us,” Summer said.

 

“With his finger on the trigger,” Andrea said pointing at Merle, “wasn’t he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you? I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done, but I am here trying to bring us together. We have to work together.”

 

“There’s no way to work together,” Rick said, “We’re going to kill him. I don’t know how or when but it will happen.”

 

“We can settle this,” she said, “there is room at Woodbury for all of you.”

 

“You know better than that,” Merle said.

 

“What makes you think this man wants to negotiate?” Hershel asked, “did he say that?”

 

“No,” Andrea said.

 

“Then why did you come here?” Summer asked.

 

“Because he’s gearing up for war,” she said, “the people are terrified. They see you all as killers, they’re training to attack.”

 

“I tell you what,” I said, “next time you see Philip. Tell him I’m gonna take his other eye for what he did.”

 

“We’ve been taking too much shit for far too long,” Glenn said, “he wants a war, he’s got one.”

 

She pleaded with Rick to sit down with this Philip and try and work things out. She tried to appeal to our sympathies and better nature by playing on the fact that we’d lost so many people and that we couldn’t stand alone like this anymore. I knew Rick wasn’t gonna have any of it. So when he told her if she wanted to set things right that she had to help us get inside I was more than supporting him. She shot that down immediately though because she said there were innocent people there. Rick got pissed and stormed out of the cellblock. Andrea left outside with Michonne and I went to try to talk to Summer. She said something about having to feed Harry and stormed up the stairs away from me. I was alone once again and went back into my cell.

 

**Summer’s POV**

 

I figured Harry’s nap could wait a little longer so Andrea could see him. I heard Carol say to Andrea that she couldn’t leave without meeting little ass-kicker and I came out of the cell with Harry following close behind as he was still just learning to walk.

 

“And you definitely can’t go without saying hello to Harry too,” I said smiling.

 

“Oh my God, he’s walking!” she exclaimed and walked over to him.

 

“Yeah,” I said and laughed.

 

She picked him up and hugged and kissed him before putting him down and asking Carol if she could hold the baby. Carol nodded and handed Judith over to her.

 

“Let me guess,” she said, “Daryl named her ass-kicker.”

 

“He did,” I said with a laugh.

 

“That’s not really her name,” she said.

 

“Judith,” Carol replied.

 

“What happened to Lori?” Andrea asked.

 

“During the c-section, Maggie,” Carol said, “Carl had to…”

 

“Oh God,” Andrea said.

 

“T-Dog died leading me to safety,” Carol said.

 

“And Shane?” she asked.

 

“Rick killed him,” I said, “the night we left the farm. The whole Randall thing was a lie.”

 

“Shane loved Rick,” Andrea said in disbelief.

 

“Shane loved Lori,” Carol said simply.

 

“Rick’s become cold, unsteady,” Andrea said.

 

“He has his reasons,” Carol said, “The Governor, you have to do something.”

 

“I am,” Andrea said handing Judith back to Carol.

 

“You need to sleep with him, give him the greatest night of his life,” Carol said, “get him to drop his guard then when he’s sleeping you can end this.”

 

“Do you agree?” Andrea asked me.

 

“Absolutely,” I replied and went to put Harry back in his crib while the rest of the group went to see Andrea off.

 

I went to go make Harry some food and then went back into the cell to feed him before he went down for his nap. Once he finished eating I sang to him softly and rocked him to sleep before gently placing him in the crib. I sat there just looking at him for a while and hoped to God that Andrea followed through with what Carol had told her to do. I couldn’t fathom losing him and I had a feeling that the next time we would see the Governor would be our last time for better or for worse. And hearing everything that was said about his numbers and amount of ammunition made me feel like it was for the worst. Maybe Hershel was right. Maybe we should leave, find somewhere else to stay. I was being stubborn believing that Rick was right about staying but the more I thought about it the more I realized how much danger we were in. If we were attacked again we would be out numbered and out gunned.

 

 As night fell we were all sitting in the common room of cellblock and Rick took Judith from the crib where I was keeping an eye on her and Harry. Beth started singing and once I recognized the song I joined in with her. We were doing our best to keep everyone’s spirits up even though we knew it wasn’t worth it. We kept on singing anyway. I could feel Daryl looking over at me, he always loved it when I sang. I looked up at him and he smiled slightly. I over heard Rick, Daryl, and Hershel talking.

 

“Some reunion, huh?” I heard Daryl say.

 

“She’s in a jam,” Rick replied.

 

“We all are,” Hershel said, “but Andrea is persuasive. This fella’s armed to the teeth and bent on destruction.”

 

“So what do you wanna do?” Daryl asked.

 

“We match it,” Rick said, “I’m going on a run.”

 

“We’ll head out tomorrow,” Daryl said.

 

“No, you stay here,” Rick said, “try to work things out with your wife, keep an eye on your brother. I’m glad you’re back, really, but if he causes a problem, it’s on you.”

 

“I got him,” Daryl said.

 

“I’ll take Michonne,” Rick said.

 

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Daryl questioned.

 

“Well I’ll find out,” he said, “and Carl. He’s ready. You hold it down here.”

 

“You got it,” Daryl said.

 

They finished the conversation just as Beth and I finished the song. We started cleaning everything up and went to head up to bed. Daryl walked over to me as I was walking into the cell and put his hand on my shoulder. I tensed up a bit and then relaxed a little.

 

“We’ve gotta talk,” he said quietly.

 

“I know,” I said.

 

“Please, Summer,” he said.

 

“Not tonight,” I said, “we can talk in the morning.”

 

I leaned forward and kissed him lightly before walking into my cell.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summer’s POV**

I woke up the next morning uneasy and conflicted. I was still more than concerned about the Governor and what he was planning. I was also dreading having this talk with Daryl. We normally just kind of brushed any of our arguments under the rug. We never actually ever talked anything out. It just wasn’t really our style. But I knew that this time around, with the way things were, we really needed to talk everything out. I got Harry up and changed him and fed him and went to go find Carol. I asked her if she would be able to watch Harry while I went to find somewhere private to talk to Daryl. She agreed to watch him and I went on a search to find my husband. He wasn’t in his cell so I went back to my cell and placed my gun in the holster and ventured on to the grounds to find him. When I finally did find him he was in one of the watchtowers. I climbed up the stairs and walked into the tower room.

 

“Need a hand?” I asked him sheepishly.

 

“Sure,” he said and smiled at me.

 

I stood next to him leaning slightly against the window. I looked over at him and he looked tired. He had bags under his eyes and cuts and scrapes all along his face and arms. It was the first time I really looked at him since he came back to the prison. He looked disheveled. I knew that a lot of it was due to the two of us fighting and I hated that. I hated it so much.

 

“I know why you did it,” I said finally breaking the silence.

 

“Did what?” he asked.

 

“Leave with Merle,” I said sitting down on the floor, “you hadn’t seen him in months, you didn’t know if he was alive or dead. You knew that the people in our group wouldn’t want him back in here, not after what he did. You were doing what you thought was best and I see that now. I also realize that Merle told me what he told me to keep me from being mad at you. You lost your brother once and I know you didn’t want to lose him again.”

 

“Pretty much,” he said sitting down next to me.

 

“I’m sorry for freaking out on you,” I said, “I’m sorry for blowing everything out of proportion. I was scared. I thought you were gone for good and the only way I knew how to cope with it was to get irrationally furious with you.”

 

“I get that,” he said, “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have left you like that. I realized while I was out there with him that even though he’s my brother I’ve got my own life. One that I’m not gonna let him fuck up again.”

 

“So, we good?” I asked and smiled at him.

 

“We’re good,” he said and leaned in and kissed me.

 

I pulled him closer and deepened the kiss. I had missed him far more than I let myself believe. He kissed me with such urgency that I knew he was feeling the same. We were craving closeness with each other so much that we were clumsily attempting to undress each other. We were breathing heavily and had finally managed to get undressed. He broke the kiss only for a moment to get our shirts off and as soon as the fabric was over my face his lips were crashing into mine again. We hadn’t been close like this in so long that I had almost forgotten what it felt like. I missed him and I needed him close to me. It felt like it did when we were younger, when we first got together. I was grateful that I found him in here and that we were secluded from everyone else in the prison. It was so hard to find privacy in this world and even for the brief time we had it, I was glad we did. We got dressed lazily, not wanting the moment to end, but we both knew that now that everything was patched up there would be no issue of intimacy anymore. I finshed pulling on my boots and placed my holster back on my hips and smiled at Daryl buttoning his shirt, he threw his angel wing vest on and smirked at me. I knew I had been away from Harry for too long so I kissed Daryl one last time and told him to be safe while he kept watch and I went to retrieve Harry from Carol.

 

“You look happy,” Carol said with a laugh as I went to get Harry from her.

 

I began to blush and she smiled at me. Women just knew when things like this happened.

 

“Has he been good?” I asked.

 

“He’s always an angel,” she said.

 

“Thank you,” I said.

 

“Don’t mention it,” she said, “you needed to fix things.”

 

“We definitely did,” I said.

 

I walked up the stairs to Daryl’s cell and balanced Harry on one hip while I started to move his stuff back into our cell. It was proving to be difficult but I felt bad leaving Harry with Carol again. I heard someone clear their throat behind me and turned around to see Merle standing there looking smug.

 

“Need some help?” he asked.

 

“Would you mind?” I asked passing Harry to him.

 

“Not at all,” he said and smiled at the opportunity to hold his nephew again.

 

I continued to move Daryl’s things and reorganize our cell.

 

“So I see you two bumped uglies and fixed your little issue,” Merle said absentmindedly.

 

“How…” I started.

 

“You got that ‘I just got fucked, and good’ look on your face,” he said with a slight laugh.

 

“Is that even really a thing?” I asked with a laugh, “I don’t think that look exists. I think you just know how your brother and I tend to solve our problems.”

 

“So how was it then?” he asked.

 

“Like I’m telling you,” I said and laughed.

 

He joined in and I remembered that this was the Merle I eventually grew to love. He was a pain in the ass and he was a world-class asshole, but when it came to his brother he was nothing but fiercely loyal and by extension he was like that for me too.

 

“So what do you honestly think this Governor is going to do?” I asked him as I sat down on my bunk.

 

“Well we have something he wants,” he said coming into the cell and sitting down across from me bouncing Harry on his knee, “and he won’t stop until he gets it.”

 

“So then Hershel is right,” I said with a sigh, “we should leave.”

 

“Not sure,” he said and shrugged, “he’s one crazy mother fucker. He would just chase us all over Georgia so long as it sees us all wiped out. Besides I’ve seen how ya’ll fight over here. If he attacked, you guys would have a chance.”

 

“You think?” I asked.

 

“Ya’ll are a bunch of crazy mother fuckers too,” he said and chuckled, “ya’ll just don’t see it.”

 

“I guess you’re right,” I said and laughed too.

 

We continued to talk for a little while before Daryl’s watch ended and we sent Merle up to take his place. He came into the cell and immediately picked up Harry and began to tell him how much he missed him. I just sat there and watched him play with Harry and smiled. For right now, things were ok but I knew that it wouldn’t last that long, we were going to have to deal with the Governor eventually and I knew it would have to be sooner rather than later.


	36. Chapter 36

**Daryl’s POV**

Rick, Hershel and I pulled up to the barn that we were meeting the Governor at after it had been decided that there was to be a meeting between him and Rick. Hershel sat in the car while Rick and I scoped out the area for any threats. We didn’t trust this mad man and we had a strange feeling that he was going to have reinforcements stationed around the barn to ambush us. We came across a couple of freshly killed walkers and I went around the perimeter while Rick went to check inside the building. I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary and walked over to the side of the barn that had a window and peered in. I hadn’t heard anything from Rick which I knew was a good sign. He would have called for help if he was in danger. As I was coming around to the other side of the barn Hershel pulled up in the car.

 

“He’s already in there,” I said approaching him, “he just sat down with Rick.”

 

“I don’t see any cars,” Hershel said.

 

“I don’t feel right,” I replied, “keep it runnin’.”

 

Just then I heard a car approaching. I told Hershel heads up and patted the hood of the car while raising my bow and approaching the oncoming vehicle that was coming to a stop. Hershel put the car in park and got out. Andrea and a few guys exited the car and I had my bow trained on her and I knew Hershel had his gun trained on the others.

 

“The hell,” I said, “why’s your boy already in there?”

 

“He’s here?” Andrea said.

 

“Yup,” I replied and moved the bow from her to the Spanish guy she was with.

 

She stormed past me and walked straight into the barn. I stood there with my guard up and bow trained on these other Woodbury assholes. It was a stare down.

 

“Maybe I should go inside,” Hershel said breaking the tense silence.

 

“The Governor thought it best if he and Rick spoke privately,” the one with the glasses said.

 

“Who the hell are you?” I questioned him.

 

“Milton Mammet,” he said.

 

“Great,” I said and scoffed, “he brought his butler.”

 

“I’m his advisor,” he said.

 

“What kind of advice?” I asked.

 

“Planning, biters, uh…I’m sorry, I don’t think I need to be explaining myself to the henchmen,” he said going back to his writing.

 

“You better watch your mouth sunshine,” I spat back.

 

“Look if you and I are gonna be out here pointing guns at each other all day, do me a favor,” the Spanish guy finally said, “shut your mouth.”

 

I didn’t take too kindly to that and got right in his face. Hershel knew that I was about to throw some punches. I didn’t like being disrespected.

 

“We don’t need this,” he intervened, “if everything goes south in there we’ll be at each other’s throats soon enough.”

 

I turned and walked back over to Hershel and went back to just staring them down.

 

**Summer’s POV**

While Daryl, Rick and Hershel were out talking to the Governor the rest of us were trying to get our ammo and supplies together to help fortify the prison some more. Glenn was dictating what to do with everything and was about to go outside to fix the cages when Merle butted in.

 

“What we should be doing,” he said, “is loading some of this fire power in a truck and paying a visit to the Governor. We know where he is right now.”

 

“Are you suggesting that we just go in and kill him?” Glenn asked.

 

“Yeah, I am,” Merle said.

 

“We told Rick _and_ Daryl that we would stay put,” Michonne said.

 

“I’ve changed my mind, sweetheart,” Merle said, “being on the side line with my brother out there…don’t sit right with me.”

 

“Sitting on the sideline with my _husband_ out there don’t sit right with me neither, Merle, but they can handle themselves, they know what they’re doing,” I said loading some more ammo into a bag.

 

“The three of them are in the middle of it, no idea we’re coming,” Glenn said, “they could get taken hostage or killed. A thousand things could go wrong.”

 

“And they will,” Merle retaliated.

 

“Summer’s right,” Carl said, “my dad can take care of himself and so can your brother.”

 

“Sorry son, but your dad’s head could be on a pike real soon,” Merle said.

 

“Merle! Don’t talk to him like that!” I spat at him, “He’s already lost his mother.”

 

Merle just shrugged.

 

“It’s not the right move,” Glenn said, “Not now. Can’t take the risk of putting them in the crossfire. It’s my decision, it’s final.”

 

With that he walked outside to fix the cages. Merle was more than pissed off. I knew he would be but Glenn was right we would be doing nothing but endangering everyone if we were to storm in there and try and kill the Governor. The reality of it was we were just going to have to sit tight and wait until they returned.

 

**Daryl’s POV**

Andrea came out a few minutes later and the air was thick with tension. I was pacing back and forth not liking this having to sit still and wait thing.

 

“No reason we can’t use this time to explore the issues ourselves,” Milton the butler said.

 

“Boss said to sit tight and shut up,” the Spanish guy said.

 

“Don’t you mean the Governor,” I spat at him.

 

I really didn’t like this guy and it was taking everything in me not to bash his brains in.

 

“It’s a good thing that they’re sitting down and talking everything out,” Milton said, “especially after what happened. Nobody wants another battle.”

 

“I wouldn’t call it a battle,” I said.

 

“Oh but I would call it a battle,” Milton said, “and I did. I recorded it.”

 

“For what?” I asked.

 

“Somebody has to keep a record of what we’ve gone through,” he said as if it was the most obvious answer in the world, “it will be a part of our history.”

 

“It makes sense,” Hershel said.

 

“I’ve got dozens of interviews,” Milton started to say but was cut off by the guttural sounds of the walkers coming.

 

Andrea stood up from where she was sitting and I lifted my crossbow into the firing position as the Spanish guy cocked his gun and grabbed a bat. The three of us ran in the direction of the sound. I reached the area where the walkers were first and noticed there were only three of them meandering between the buildings. Andrea and the Spanish guy caught up to me and I looked over at him gesturing to the walkers.

 

“You first,” I said.

 

“Nah,” he said gesturing with his bat, “you first.”

 

“Ugh, men,” Andrea said pushing past us towards the walkers.

 

She stabbed one through the eye with her knife.

 

“Pussy,” he said to me as he bashed one of the walkers heads into the side of the building with his bat.

 

He looked over at me as if to say ‘top that’ and I shrugged lifting my bow. I pushed past him and shot one of the walkers through the skull. A few more started coming in and he started twirling his knife between his fingers before stabbing one. I fired a shot straight through another walkers eye and it went clean through and lodged itself into the throat of the walker behind it. It looked like the Spanish guy was about to kill that one walker and I grabbed my hunting knife and threw it. It landed squarely in the middle of the walkers head just as he was about to stab it. He looked back at me, startled and I just shrugged. He stared at the walker on the ground and I walked over and pulled the knife from it’s head. I retrieved my arrows and found a pack of cigarettes in one of the walkers pockets. I pulled them out and put one between my lips. I offered him one and he refused, claiming he preferred menthols.

 

“Douche bag,” I said as I lit the cigarette, “you army or something?”

 

“Nah,” he said, “I just hate these things. After what they did. Wife, kids.”

 

“Sucks,” I said.”

 

“You got a family?” he asked me.

 

“Wife and a son, he’s almost two,” I said.

 

He nodded and we stood there in silence for a few minutes.

 

“You know this is a joke, right?” he asked, “They’re not gonna work anything out. I’m sure they’ll do their little dance. And tomorrow maybe the next day, they’ll give the word.”

 

“I know,” I said and nodded and we headed back over to the front of the building where the rest of our people were.

 

**Summer’s POV**

We continued to sort through everything and Merle was getting even more pissed. As Glenn was coming back inside he had grabbed a bag and was starting to load it up with guns and ammo.

 

“Hey,” Glenn said, “you’re not going.”

 

“I don’t need your permission,” Merle said furiously shoving things into the bag.

 

“I can’t let you,” Glenn said.

 

“You can’t stop me,” Merle insisted.

 

“If your gonna live here with us, it’s gonna be on our terms,” Maggie said and I wanted to stop her because she was just provoking him but I knew it would do no good, “if Michonne can do it why can’t you?”

 

“Cause that’s my brother out there, that’s why!” He shouted, “What’s the matter with ya’ll!”

 

“And it’s Summer’s husband and she’s still staying here,” Maggie said, “you don’t think she wants to go out there and bring him back!?”

 

Merle just looked at me.

 

“Merle you know I do,” I said, “but you also know that this is too dangerous. We could get him killed! It’s better to stay put.”

 

He just shook his head and walked up the stairs coming face to face with Glenn.

 

“I’m not letting you do this,” he said, “you’re just going to put them in danger.”

 

“Nut up already, boy,” Merle said, “this guy cops a feel of your woman and you pussy out like this? Get out of my way.”

 

“No,” Glenn said firmly standing his ground.

 

Merle went in for the punch and they started wailing on each other. They fell down the stairs and Merle was on top of Glenn. I went up behind him and put him in a headlock pulling him back as Michonne grabbed his arm to prevent him from cutting Glenn. It was getting out of control when Beth fired a gun. Glenn managed to push Merle off as he was fighting me and Michonne to let him go. He broke out of my hold and stormed off. He stood there sulking between the cell block and the common area watching Michonne and I continue to compartmentalize our ammo and guns.

 

“You know I’m right,” he finally said as Michonne went into the cell block, “these folks here, they’re strong. Good fighters. They ain’t killers.”

 

“Rick is,” Michonne said, “Maggie is. Carl put down his own mother.”

 

“Mercy killings,” Merle said, “it don’t make him an assassin.”

 

“And you are?” I scoffed.

 

“When I have to be,” he said and I stifled a laugh.

 

“Then how do you explain letting me get away,” Michonne said.

 

“I must have been seduced by your sterling personality,” he said and I could see Michonne smirk, “you coming with me or not? Me and my brother have a few calls we use when we hunt. I’ll give him the heads up, he’ll warn the others. You shogun the Governor’s ass and I’ll take care of the rest, we’ll be home before you know it.”

 

“And what about Andrea?” Michonne asked.

 

“Bullets fly, she’s gonna have to make her choice real quick,” he said.

 

“You’re on your own,” she said, “you get people killed. It’s on you.”

 

“What about you, sugar tits?” he said turning to me, “You wanna go get that prick back for what he did?”

 

“You know I do, Merle,” I said, “but I will not let you risk Daryl’s life for it. Hunting calls or not he could be killed. Did you ever think that maybe the other people would hear the call and think something is up when Daryl starts getting all secretive with Hershel and Rick? We cannot risk it.”

 

“Does no one think them being out there with no reinforcements is a bad thing?!” he said getting upset with me.

 

“Of course none of us like it but it is what it has to be,” I said, “you think I like sitting here for hours knowing he’s out there with those people and not knowing if they’ve killed him!? I don’t! But it would be a far greater risk if we all went out there. We could lose everyone! Everything thing! Why don’t you understand that?! Now I know that Daryl can take care of himself and he could kill all of those fucks single handedly if he needed to and I know you know that too, so just fucking drop it!”

 

My words seemed to resonate with him and he dropped the subject and went to pick up Harry from the crib to feed him while I continued to sort through everything and try to keep my mind off of Daryl being out there. Not too long later I heard the sound of a motorcycle and I knew that they were back. My anxiety lessened just a little bit and I went out to the prison yard to meet Daryl.

 

“Let’s get inside,” Rick said suddenly and we walked back into the prison.

 

We all convened in the cellblock and Daryl immediately went and took Harry from Merle.

 

“So I met this Governor,” rick said, “sat with him for quite a while.”

  
“Just the two of you?” Merle asked and Rick nodded.

 

“We should have gone when we had the chance, bro,” he said to Glenn as he walked past him.

 

“He wants the prison,” Rick said and Daryl put an arm around me pulling me close to him, “he wants us gone. Dead. He wants us dead. For what we did to Woodbury. We’re going to war.”

 

Everyone was silent and staring at each other. Daryl readjusted Harry on his hip and led me up the stairs to our cell. He looked back at Merle and nodded before heading up to our cell right behind me.


	37. Chapter 37

**Daryl’s POV**

Since it was decided that we were going to stick to our guns and fight everything out we all set out to start fortifying the prison as best as possible. I was making my way out to the grounds to help Glenn, Summer and Michonne set traps for the Governor when Rick and Hershel pulled me aside.

 

“He wants Michonne,” Rick said, “it’s the only way. No one else knows.”

 

“You gonna tell ‘em?” I asked.

 

“Not til after,” he said, “we’ve got to do it today and it’s got to be quiet.”

 

“You got a plan?” I asked.

 

He nodded and said, “Tell her we need to talk, away from the others.”

 

I stared at him trying to comprehend what he was saying. We had lost so many people and done so much to keep everyone safe that it just didn’t seem like the right thing to do was to just throw her to the dogs.

 

“It just doesn’t seem like us, man,” I said.

 

“No, it doesn’t,” Hershel finally said.

 

“We do this, we avoid a fight,” he said, “nobody else dies.”

 

I knew he was telling me that to appeal to the father in me. Neither of us wanted any more of our people dead but we especially didn’t want our families dead. I didn’t like the idea but I was going to go with it, because it really did seem like it was what was best for the entire group.

 

“Ok,” I said.

 

“We need someone else,” Rick said.

 

I could tell from the look on his face that he was talking about Merle but he didn’t want to admit it. It was almost like he was looking for my permission to have Merle be a part of this.

 

“I’ll talk to him,” I replied.

 

“No, I’ll do it,” he said.

 

“I’ll go with you,” I offered.

 

“No,” he said, “just me.”

 

He walked back into the prison and I headed out to where everyone was to start putting up the traps. As I approached them I could feel my stomach sinking. I was really uneasy about essentially sending Michonne off to her death. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to sit here and work side by side with her knowing her fate. It made me uneasy. I finally joined them and silently helped them put everything together. Summer could immediately tell something was wrong and she could also tell that I didn’t want to draw attention to it.

 

“You ok?” she asked me quietly.

 

“Fine,” I replied.

 

“You don’t look fine,” she said as she dragged a piece of wood covered in barbed wire into place.

 

“There’s somethin goin on,” I said staking the wood to the ground, “I can’t talk about it now. I’ll tell you about it later.”

 

“You can’t leave me hangin like that,” she said and stood there with her hands on her hips.

 

“Sum, I ain’t kiddin,” I said and climbed into the bed of the truck, “I can’t talk about it right now. I’ll tell you about it later.”

 

“Fine,” she said when she sensed how serious I was being.

 

She climbed back into the drivers seat and drove the truck a few more feet so we could place the next trap. We finished setting up the traps and Summer drove the truck up to the fence and Rick let us in. I guess he had his time to talk to Merle. After we parked and hopped out we started to make our way back inside.

 

“If they try to drive up through the gate again, maybe some blown out tires will stop them,” Glenn said.

 

“That’s a good idea,” Rick said.

 

“It was Michonne’s,” I said giving him a look that hopefully conveyed that I thought what he was doing was a bad idea.

 

“We don’t have to win,” Michonne said, “we just have to make their getting at us more trouble than it’s worth.”

 

Rick looked back over at me and I gave him a nod and he motioned for us to make our way back into the prison. Everyone kind of split off in their own directions and I knew I wanted to talk to Glenn about everything that happened. I noticed that he went back outside to another part of the courtyard and I followed him. He was trying to put up a gate when I reached him.

 

“Hey,” I said walking toward him, “you seen Merle around?”

 

He looked at me like he couldn’t believe I would ask him that and I put my bow down to help him put the gate up.

 

“He say he was sorry yet?” I asked, “Cause he is. He’s gonna make it right. Imma make him. There’s gotta be a way. Just needs to be a little forgiveness is all.”

 

It felt like Glenn was never going to say anything to me as he busied himself cleaning up the space. Finally he walked over to me.

 

“He tied me to a chair,” he said, “beat me, and threw a walker in the room. Maybe I could call it even. But he – he took Maggie to a man who terrorized her, humiliated her. I care more about her than I care about me.”

 

He went back to busying himself and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to fix this. I grabbed my bow and went to go look for Merle. Maybe if I talked some sense into him he would apologize to Glenn for everything he did. I went down to the section of the tombs that we cleared out and looked for him there.

 

“Merle?” I called, “you down here?”

 

I heard movement and called for Merle again as I raised my bow. I walked into the room and saw him standing there leaning against a bookshelf with a smug look on his face.

 

“Hey, little brother,” he said smiling at me, “I was just about to holler back at you.”

 

“What are you doing down here?” I asked him.

 

“Just looking for a little, uh, crystal meth,” he said and I looked at him in disgust.

 

Even in the middle of the end of the world all he could think about was getting a fix. Maybe Summer was right, maybe I should have just left him to fend for himself.

 

“Yeah, yeah I know,” he said, “shit will mess my ife up when everything is going so sweet, right?”

 

I chose to ignore him.

 

“You talk to Rick yet?” I asked.

 

“Yeah,” he said, “Oh, yeah. I’m in. But, uh, he ain’t got the stomach for it. He’s gonna buckle. You know that, right?”

 

I didn’t know that like he was assuming but I would have been lying if I said that I wasn’t hoping that he would cave and change his mind. I knew it wouldn’t sit right with him if we went through with this plan. It all seemed perfect on paper but I had a strong feeling that returning Michonne to the Governor or not he was still going to turn around and attack us. It wasn’t worth the lives of our people to turn her in and be attacked anyway.

 

“Yeah,” I said and shrugged, “if he does, he does.”

 

“You want him to?” Merle asked picking up on the fact that I was trying to brush off what he was saying.

 

I just looked at him and sighed. I didn’t want to hear a whole slew of bullshit about how I’ve become too soft or how I’ve changed so I decided not to answer his question.

 

“Whatever he says goes,” I said.

 

Merle looked at me like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing and scoffed.

 

“Man,” he said, “Do you even posses a pair of balls, little brother?”

 

I was starting to think I should have just changed the subject or left the room with the way I saw this conversation going. There was just no winning with Merle. He took whatever I said and twisted it around and then found some way to use it to put me down.

 

“Are they even attached?” he asked and I went to walk away, “I mean, if they are, do they belong to you? And here I was thinking that Summer was the one who wore the pants in your relationship this whole time! I guess I was wrong! You used to call people like him sheep. What happened to you?”

 

“What happened with you and Glenn, and Maggie?” I asked finally deciding to just get to the point of why I came down here in the first place.

 

“I’ve done worse,” he said, “You need to grow up. Things are different now. Your people look at me like I’m the devil grabbing up those lovebirds and your precious Summer like that. Now ya’ll want to do the same thing I did, snatch someone up and deliver them to the Governor, just like me. People do what they gotta do or they die.”

 

I was starting to get fed up with him but he was right about one thing, we were doing exactly what we did but we had a different reason.

 

“Can’t do things without people anymore, man,” I said.

 

“Maybe these people need someone like me around, huh?” he said with a scoff, “Do their dirty work. The bad guy. Yeah, maybe that’s how it is now, huh? How does that hit you?”

 

I looked at him and walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

 

“I just want my brother back,” I said simply.

 

“Get outta here man,” he said and I could tell I made him uncomfortable so I just left and went to go find Summer and Harry.

 

I found her sitting in our cell bouncing Harry on her lap. I walked in and collapsed on our bunk.

 

“Ya ever gonna tell me what happened?” she asked.

 

“The Governor wants Michonne,” I said rubbing my hand over my face, “told Rick he would leave us alone if he turns her over.”

 

“Rick wouldn’t do that,” she said in disbelief.

 

“Well that’s what his plan is and he wants Merle to be the one to deliver her,” I said.

 

“Does he realize that the Governor will not only kill Michonne but Merle too? Then he will come here for the rest of us,” she said putting Harry down in his crib, “he doesn’t show mercy and his claim to leave us alone is just a front. This man doesn’t make promises like that.”

 

“I know,” I said, “but there’s nothing I can do about it now. He’s already talked to Merle about it and he’s in. What’s done is done.”

 

“Why didn’t you try and talk him out of it?” she asked.

 

“Because on the off chance that this Governor actually does leave us alone after we turn her over, I can’t risk your safety like that,” I said.

 

She laid down next to me and put her head on my chest and we just laid there like that for a while. I knew she was thinking and wasn’t quite sure what to say.

 

“Maybe you were right not to stop Rick,” she finally said, “but it just doesn’t sit right with me, what he’s doing. I won’t say anything to him but I don’t like it.”

 

“I know,” was all I could manage.

 

We laid there for a few more minutes before I got up and went to take up my post in one of the watchtowers. I was crossing the courtyard and making my way over to them when I heard Rick call me. I stopped and turned to look at him.

 

“It’s off,” he said coming over to me, “we’ll take our chances.”

 

“I’m not saying it was the wrong call,” I said, “but this is definitely the right one.”

 

I was about to turn and continue on to my post but I noticed that Rick looked extremely panicked.

 

“What’s wrong?” I asked him.

 

“I can’t find Merle or Michonne,” he said, “They’re gone.”

 

I knew Merle would pull this kind of shit but I didn’t think he would risk his standing with the group to do it.

 

“Come on,” I said to Rick and ran back into the prison.

 

I was hoping that Merle was still in the room I left him in. We made it to the room and there was no obvious sign of Merle.

 

“He was in here,” I said, “said he was looking for drugs. Said a lot of things, actually.”

 

“Like what?” Rick asked as we both scanned the room for any sign of where Merle could have gone.

 

“Said that you were gonna change your mind,” I said and noticed something on the ground near the wall, “here we go.”

 

I knelt down to pick it up and noticed it was a pillowcase.

 

“Yeah, he took her here,” I said throwing the pillowcase back on the floor, “they mixed it up.”

 

“Damn it!” Rick said getting frustrated, “I’m going after him.”

 

“You can’t track for shit,” I said following him toward the door at the back of the room.

 

“Then the both of us,” Rick said.

 

“No, just me. I said I’d go and I’ll go,” I said, “plus they’re gonna come back here. You need to be ready. You’re family too.”

 

He nodded at me as I walked out and I knew he got that I meant that I needed to be the one to get Merle and I needed someone there to protect Summer and Harry. I made my way out of the prison and started toward the meeting place.


	38. Chapter 38

**Summer’s POV**

It had been hours since Daryl had gone to his post and I couldn’t find him anywhere. He should have been done by now and I was starting to get worried. I had a really bad feeling that something bad had happened. I was in a panic and I left Harry with Carol so I could really look for him. I threw on my leather jacket and scarf, strapped my holster and gun on and went to make my way to the courtyard. Just as I stepped outside I ran into Rick. He looked like he was about to say something but I cut him off.

 

“I know all about the plan, Rick,” I said, “so don’t even beat around the bush here. Where is Daryl? Did he take Michonne and go with Merle to take her to the Governor?”

 

“No,” he said and sighed, “Merle left with Michonne and I couldn’t find them. I changed my mind about the plan. Daryl went after them to bring them back.”

 

“And you let him go!?” I shouted, “Alone!?”

 

“Summer you and I both know he is more than capable –“ he said.

 

“I know he is more than capable!” I said, I was starting to have an anxiety attack, “I have a really, really bad feeling Rick. Something’s not sitting right with me. I have to go get him. I have to make sure he’s ok.”

 

“Sum, you know I can’t let you leave,” he said rubbing his hand over his face, “you know damn well Daryl would kill me if I let you leave. Just take a deep breath. Everything is fine. You just need to do something to take your mind off of him being out there. Go gather everyone at the picnic table over there, I want to talk to everyone.”

 

“Rick, I really –“ I started to say.

 

“Summer,” he said, “you know I’m right.”

 

I sighed and nodded and walked back into the prison to rally everyone together out in the courtyard. Once we were all gathered together Rick joined us and I knew he was geared up for a speech.

 

“When I met with the Governor, he offered me a deal,” he said, “he said…he said he would leave us alone if I gave him Michonne. And I was gonna do that…to keep us safe. I changed my mind. But now Merle took Michonne to fulfill the deal and Daryl went to stop him and I don’t know if it’s too late.”

 

He looked so distraught and upset; I could tell all of this was eating him up inside. Looking around the group I could tell everyone was shocked, concerned and upset. No one knew what to make of this but we all stayed silent and let Rick talk.

 

“I was wrong not to tell you. And I’m sorry,” he continued, “What I said last year, that first night after the farm, it can’t be like that. What we do, what we’re willing to do, who we are; it’s not my call. It can’t be. I couldn’t sacrifice one of us for the greater good because we are the greater good.”

 

He was looking around at all of us trying to gauge our reactions. I knew we all looked concerned and probably scared but we were holding it together for Rick. We wanted him to be able to say what he needed to say.

“We’re the reason we’re still here,” he said looking at each of us, “Not me. This is life and death. How you live…how you die…it isn’t up to me. I’m not your Governor. We choose to go, we choose to stay. We stick together. We vote. We can stay and we can fight or we can go.”

 

He turned around and walked away from us heading back in to the prison. No one followed him, we all knew he needed some time to be by himself and sort out his thoughts and his feelings and frankly, we all needed to do the same thing. Eventually we all dispersed and I went up to take watch in the watchtower because I wanted to see Daryl come back the second he got here.

 

 

**Daryl’s POV**

I was halfway to the meet up point when I saw Michonne killing a walker. I noticed she wasn’t tied up and Merle was nowhere in sight.

 

“Hey!” I called over to her, “where’s my brother? You kill him?”

 

She shook her head no and said, “He let me go.”

 

It was shocking to me that Merle had a change of heart but it was more shocking to me that he wasn’t with her heading back to the prison. I knew then that he was planning on taking on the Governor on his own.

 

“Don’t let anyone come after me,” I told her, “especially Summer.”

 

She nodded again and I ran off in the direction of the meeting spot hoping to catch Merle before he got there. I knew nothing good could come of him meeting the Governor on his own. As I approached the meeting spot I noticed a ton of walkers. They seemed to over take the entire area. I was killing a few of them as I went and reusing my arrows. I reloaded my bow and lifted it to kill a walker eating and stopped dead in my tracks. There he was, plain as day, makeshift knife hand and all, Merle. I could feel my chest start to tighten and my throat start to close.

 

This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t real. He lifted his head and looked directly at me, entrails falling out of his mouth as he chewed. He started to stand up and I started to cry. I refused to believe this. He got to his feet and climbed over the body he was devouring and started coming toward me. I dropped my bow to the ground and started walking toward him. As he advanced on me I pushed him off and started crying harder. He kept coming at me and I kept pushing him. Then out of nowhere any kind of sadness I was feeling melted away and turned to anger and hatred. I pulled my knife from my belt and slammed it into Merle’s head. I was furious at him. I continuously slammed my knife into his head and all I kept thinking was _this one is for leaving me when we were kids, this one is for constantly being locked up, this one is for letting dad hurt me, this one is for constantly ruining my relationship, this one is for turning Summer against me, this one is for coming back, this one is for making me choose, this one is for leaving again, this one is for getting killed_. My emotions were a rollercoaster. By the time I was finished and I dropped my knife he was unrecognizable. I dropped to the ground and continued to cry. I was letting myself go from sad to angry and back again. There was no way for me to come to grips with this. I finally pulled myself up off the ground and went over to his body to see if there was anything of his worth salvaging to keep. I felt around his pockets and to my surprise I found his wallet. I found it kind of off that he still had it but I guess it was one of those things you just got so used to having on you that you never stopped carrying it. I opened it up and didn’t really find much other than his driver’s license and a couple credit cards. By instinct I opened the money flap and saw a picture. I pulled it out and unfolded it and recognized it instantly. It was a picture of Harry’s last ultrasound before all of this. There he was clear as day in that weird 3D thing they do. It was funny how much he didn’t look like that when he was born and how much he definitely doesn’t look like that now. I just couldn’t believe he kept this all this time. I was starting to get upset all over again and forced myself to get up and start walking back to the prison before I started crying again. I dropped his wallet back on the ground and put the ultrasound picture in my pocket and started walking.

 

**Summer’s POV**

I had been sitting in the watchtower for hours and there was still no sign of Daryl. Michonne had come back without Daryl or Merle and I almost left to go after them but was told, yet again, by Rick not to and to my surprise Michonne backed him up saying she ran into Daryl on her way back here and he specifically told her to stop me from leaving. I was starting to get frustrated and the fact that Michonne was here, and had been for hours now, and Daryl wasn’t was not doing any good for my anxiety. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and I left the watchtower. I started making my way to the front gates to leave when I saw him coming out of the woods. I guess Rick was keeping an eye on me because as soon as I started running toward the gate to open it for Daryl, Rick was right on my tail. He helped me get the gate open and before I even had time to say anything to him Daryl had wrapped his arms around me and buried his face into my neck.

 

I could feel the tears falling down my neck and Rick looked like he was about to say something and I just shook my head telling him to go. He locked the gate and headed back inside. I finally knew now, with no sign of Merle anywhere, that my bad feeling had nothing to do with Daryl not being ok but with Merle. I knew he didn’t want to talk about it so I didn’t say a word. I just let him cry it out and stood there with him rubbing his back. Daryl was never one to really let out his emotions in front of people, I think I had seen him cry only a handful of times in all of our years together, so I stood outside next to the front gate with him until he was ready to go inside and face everyone.

 

I walked inside with him, hand-in-hand, and made sure that the look on my face conveyed to everyone not to talk about it. The look on Daryl’s face made it very clear that Merle didn’t make it and I knew he wouldn’t take well to anyone talking to him about it. He was the kind of person that if he didn’t want to talk about something and he was pressed about it, he would blow up on them. That was the last thing we needed right now, we all had too much to worry about with all of the Governor nonsense. We made it into the cellblock and as I had hoped, no one said a word. Daryl went up to Carol and took Harry from her without saying a word and went into our cell. I followed him into the cell and sat with him for a while. He wasn’t even saying anything to me and that was ok. He stood up to put Harry in his crib and something fell out of his pocket. I picked it up and noticed it was a picture from Harry’s ultrasound.

 

“Where did you find this?” I asked him.

 

He turned around and looked at me before sighing and sitting on the bed.

 

“Merle had it,” he said, “in his wallet. I found it on him after –“

 

“I…I uh,” I said and my throat started constricting, “I can’t believe he kept this. He asked the ultrasound technician for a copy but I never thought he was going to keep it.”

 

I gave the picture back to Daryl and he put it back in his pocket and I wiped the tears from my face. I never thought I would see the day that I would cry over Merle Dixon.


End file.
